Thursday, October 31, 2013

Obamacare’s Fatal Flaw

By Martin Feldstein

Obamacare, officially known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is the health-insurance program enacted by US President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats over the unanimous opposition of congressional Republicans. It was designed to cover those Americans without private or public health insurance – about 15% of the US population.

Opponents of Obamacare have failed to stop it in the courts and, more recently, in Congress. The program was therefore formally launched on October 1. Although it has been hampered by a wide range of computer problems and other technical difficulties, the program is likely to be operating by sometime in 2014.
CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphThe big question is whether it will function as intended and survive permanently. There is a serious risk that it will not.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphThe potentially fatal flaw in Obamacare is the very same feature that appeals most to its supporters: the ability of even those with a serious preexisting health condition to buy insurance at the standard premium.

CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraphThat feature will encourage those who are not ill to become or remain uninsured until they have a potentially costly medical diagnosis. The resulting shift in enrollment away from low-cost healthy patients to those with predictably high costs will raise insurance companies’ cost per insured person, driving up the premiums that they must charge. As premiums rise, even more relatively healthy individuals will be encouraged to forego insurance until illness strikes, causing average costs and premiums to rise further.

Read the rest here.

8 comments:

  1. "CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraph"? (3x)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. its not particularly readable and you can't click through to the original.

      Delete
  2. Someone with a serious preexisting health does not pay the standard premium under Obamacare. That is the fatal flaw in this article. There is an incentive to wait until you get sick to buy insurance and that is why there is a health insurance mandate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, JWolf you're correct! Ding ding ding!

      The mix of disincentives and incentives will mean most healthy people pay the penalty rather than pay for insurance. That will destroy the system. Are you that obtuse?

      Delete
    2. paying the penalty to the government is not the same as purchasing insurance. The effect is the same on premiums.

      Delete
  3. The hard truth is that this is not about affordable healthcare, this is about thinning the herd.

    If you have a serious health problem, they are telling you to get your effects in order, say goodbye to your family, and find a nice final resting place. The government is broke, the Fed is broke, the banks are broke, the world is broke. If you think they give a rats ass about you, take a couple of Advil and get over it...

    [The reason Obamacare is a complete goat rope is that it was never meant to work - it's just a "the dog ate my homework" excuse.]

    ReplyDelete
  4. Obama bribed a senator to get Obamacare passed. The Congress passed it without knowing what was in the bill, in the middle of the night, when they hoped noone was looking. Obamacare is a tax and all tax bills must originate in the House; Obamacare originated in the Senate and is therefore unconstitutional. BUT Obama is a Chicago thug criminal so he signed it any way.

    We know Obama is a racist as evidenced by his taking sides in the Trayvon Martin incident, and making a big stink over it; and when the white Australian baseball player was murdered by blacks he said nothing. He's clearly a racist. The main intent of Obamacare is to take from producers (mostly lighter-skinnned people) and provide healthcare coverage to non-producers (mostly darker-skinned people). But as noted in the article it may fail due to unintended consequences.

    Best-case scenario is for enough people to get angry enough at their high premiums, high deductibles, and poor coverage that they will vote out ALL Democrats who run in 2014. Then, perhaps the Republicans will have a veto-overriding-majority and can repeal Obamacare, impeach Obama for crimes against the US, and lock him up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only problem is Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same counterfeit coin. Nothing will change. The system is terminally broken.

      Delete