Obamacare failed because it flunked Economics 101 and Human Nature 101. It straitjacketed insurers into providing overly expensive, soup-to-nuts policies. It wasn’t flexible enough so that people could buy as much coverage as they wanted and could afford ”” not what the government dictated. Many healthy people primarily want catastrophic coverage. Obamacare couldn’t lure them in, couldn’t persuade them to buy on the chance they’d get sick.
Obamacare failed because the penalties for going uncovered are too low when stacked against its skyrocketing premium costs. Next year, the penalty for staying uninsured is $695 per adult, or perhaps 2.5 percent of a family’s taxable household income. That’s far less than many Americans would pay for coverage. Financial incentive: Skip Obamacare….
Obamacare failed because it hasn’t tamed U.S. medical costs. Health care is about supply and demand: People who get coverage use it, especially if the law mandates free preventive care. Iron law of economics: Nothing is free; someone pays. To pretend otherwise was folly. Those forces combined to spike the costs of care, and thus insurance costs.
OK so what is the answer? The piece is long on criticism and short on alternatives beyond some vague references to flexibility and selling insurance across state lines.
I gather you guys across the Atlantic don’t like our socialized medicine over here in Europe. The NHS has lots and lots of problems. But still: I don’t fear massive costs. Full disclosure: I have been on the waiting list for spinal decompression for six months and no operation date in sight. People say that the French system is pretty good, though, with a mixture of state and private funding.
We were lied to from Day 1. As a result of Obamacare, my family premiums have skyrocketed from $19,000 to $30,000 a year, with less coverage and all sorts of “exceptions” that are no longer covered. My doctor “retired” in disgust last year, and wrote a scathing letter to all his patients about how Obamacare and the resulting red tape have destroyed the healthcare system. I now am stuck in a “group practice.” It takes me 3-4 months to get an appointment.
End it, don’t mend it. President Trump needs to issue an executive order on Day 1 saying Obamacare is no longer effective and permanently suspended.