Some interesting prognostications from Ben Domenech:
Obamacare’s struggles have obviously vindicated the positioning of the free-market advocates, too – particularly the ones who have been most vociferous in their distrust of the manageability of Obamacare and Romneycare over the past decade and a half. Conservative and libertarian health policy experts like NCPA’s John Goodman, Cato’s Michael Cannon, Heritage’s Chris Jacobs, Heartland’s Peter Ferrara, and FreedomWorks’ Dean Clancy, who have held to that “this is going to be a train wreck” position despite the efforts of The Fixers, are the victors here. All have their favored alternative approaches to national health care policy reform, whether it be through tax credits, deductions, or full deductibility combined with a bigger investment in the safety net or risk pools. But they all share certain aspects in common: they ditch the mandate and exchange-based approach to health reform, and instead rely on individual responsibility and carrots to achieve universal access to care. And, more fundamentally, they all understood that no group of ”experts,” no matter how wise, could possibly predict and control one-fifth of the American economy – particularly one already so distorted by decades of misguided government intervention.
RTWT.
The only thing we know for sure is this train will continue a slow wreck for decades. Politicians will always be ‘here to help.’ The solution, to not mess with economics which keeps us alive better than they ever will, just never occurs to them.
Lest we get treated to more bilge from Jim on how wonderful Romneycare is, and if we’d only give Obamacare just a little time….
October 29, 2013 at 1:51 am
THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
Romneycare foretells Obamacare failures
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131029/OPINION01/310290010#ixzz2j7OouuUi
A couple excerpts:
“But, ominously, the wheels started to come off as Romneycare’s features kicked in. Within two years of its launch, the program’s costs were exploding.
“Coverage for the uninsured in the state exchange was more expensive than estimated,” says Josh Archambault, director of Health Care Policy at Massachusetts’ Pioneer Institute, of 20 percent cost over-runs that necessitated tax hikes. To control costs, he adds, Massachusetts also doubled down on exchange regulation, reducing customers’ choices……………
What’s more, Romneycare inflated state health premiums that were already among the nation’s highest. Which is to say, while Romneycare has failed to reduce costs, its residents were already paying for a heavily regulated system.
Massachusetts’ health entitlement spending ballooned to 40 percent of its budget (and you thought Michigan’s 25 percent was out of control). But didn’t all this spending lead to universal health coverage in Massachusetts? No. The state already had an unusually low 6 percent of its population uninsured. Romneycare has cut that number in half, mostly with hundreds of millions in government subsides. But coverage is still not universal.
Meanwhile, access to health care has declined.
All have their favored alternative approaches to national health care policy reform, whether it be through tax credits, deductions, or full deductibility combined with a bigger investment in the safety net or risk pools
My favored approach is to get the Feds out of health care entirely (apart from the VA, since it has an obvious and rational tie to proper Federal powers), including tax benefits for “insurance” vs. cash payment to employees.
The thing to “reform” in “national health care policy” is the existence of a “national health care policy”.
There shouldn’t be anything “national” about it at all, and it should be outside the realm of “policy” entirely – at very least Federally.
Maybe the A-C-A will be like N-A-S-A — money will be spent but nothing will happen.
As for what’s next for health care policy, I wonder if laws can be passed which essentially neuters it. You have a House member considering filing a bill which will allow people to keep their health insurance notwithstanding Obamacare’s known-to-all rules that force people to give up their insurance.
Now I wonder what other laws could be passed which would effectively neuter Obamacare?