Monday, July 29, 2013

Flawed thinking on ObamaCare, giving it a shot has consequences

Reading the comments to an article in the NYT on the Obama Admin's implementation of ACA, I came across a very common response:
"Corkyjon it seem to me that you speculate in the negative; the best thing that we can do for ourselves is to let Obama care play itself out. It's meant to work by getting all the uninsured to get coverage or suffer a penalty id they don't, and to offer coverage despite pre-existing conditions, Sounds good . . . will it do what's expected of the program ? that's to be seen"

What I never see mentioned or discussed by these individuals is the consequences or aftereffects of giving it a shot. They make it sound like giving it a shot is a free sample.  That is not in anyway accurate. If it doesn't work we are looking at:
  1. Hundreds of billions (if not trillions) of additional debt.
  2. Individuals being kicked off insurance with no place to go
  3. Employers having exited the market and possibly not willing or able to get back in
  4. Shopping habits and expectations for insurance altered
  5. Carriers having exited the market and possibly never returning
If this fails we just don't pick up where we left off before. The stimulus was a failure, that doesn't mean we don't have to pay the trillion dollar bill. ACA's failure could easily dwarf that. That is why you don't half-ass complete overhauls of major segments of the economy like this. 

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