Question of the Week: Will Obamacare Collapse?

Townhall.com ^ | July 15, 2013 | Daniel J. Mitchel

[Kaslin]

We have a very interesting question from a reader in Nebraska. Is Obamacare such a cluster-you-know-what that the law will self-destruct?

Well, I’ve already explained why I’m optimistic about the possibility of turning Obamacare lemons into free-market lemonade.

Simply stated, the law took a healthcare system that already was a mess because of government intervention and subsidies and it doubled down on that misguided approach!

And since it’s highly unlikely that more government is the solution to problems created by government in the first place, I think we’ll have great fun being able to highlight all the bad consequences of Obamacare and make a principled case for pro-market reform (meaning not only Medicaid reform and Medicare reform, but also tax reform to help deal with the third-party payer crisis).

That being said, I don’t think Obamacare will collapse on its own. We’re going to have to give it a push. A big push.

This is because legislation will be required to undo all the taxes and subsidies in the law. And even though we have the bizarre situation of the Obama Administration deciding to deliberately ignore a legal requirement to impose an employer mandate beginning in 2014, we’ll also need legislation to undo both the individual and the employer mandate.

In other words, the fact that the law won’t achieve any of its goals (such as lower costs and universal insurance coverage) won’t cause the bad policy to disappear.

But it will make the law even more unpopular – particularly if we do our job.

That’s why we should relentlessly highlight examples of wasteful Obamacare spending. The Washington Post, for instance, is reporting on “the extreme measures states are taking to get young people signed up for Obamacare programs.”

And when even the Washington Post thinks politicians and bureaucrats are going above and beyond in their efforts to waste money, you know it’s something especially foolish. But when you’re trying to trick young people into signing up for insurance policies designed to subsidize richer seniors, you don’t really have much choice.

Oregon might do branded coffee cups, for example, whereas Seattle is looking at doing outreach at music festivals. It only makes sense, then, that Kentucky would be doing outreach at multiple bourbon festivals across the state.

From a big picture perspective, this type of waste in just a penny or two on the dollar, but it’s very symbolic of a law that is poorly designed and unworkable.

I also think political cartoonists are very helpful allies since they’re so effective at illustrating some of the worst parts of Obamacare. So let’s wrap up this post with a new batch of cartoons.

We’ll start with a couple that skirt the edge of appropriateness by playing off the recent airline crash in San Francisco. The first one is by Steve Breen.

And the second one is by Eric Allie.

The donkey pilot blaming the elephant passenger is a good touch, and you find that theme in this Gary Varvel gem.

Let’s close with a great Rick McKee cartoon that focuses on exploding costs, a message near and dear to my heart.

One final warning. We’re not guaranteed of victory simply because Obamacare is leading to bad results. The statists are going to try and seize control of the narrative by asserting that the higher costs and greater inefficiencies could be fixed by squandering more money in the short run and imposing a single-payer system in the long run.

That’s a very perverse example of Mitchell’s Law and it surely doesn’t make sense to normal people. But it’s an approach that plays to the worst instincts of politicians, many of who will grab any excuse to increase the size and scope of Washington.

[bmwcyle]

They want the problems so they can come is a fix the problem. There is noting new under the sun here.

[Iron Munro]

Here's a few more for your collection:

[KarlInOhio]

buying healthcare across state lines) in Obamacare

Are you allowed to do that? I thought that was one proposal that was shot down to protect crazy systems like some in New England where they want to force insurance companies and customers to cover everything from aroma therapy to sex change operations.

I still believe that Obamacare was designed be collapse so they would have an excuse to fully nationalize the system. They just didn't expect it to happen early enough to abandon the concept entirely. I was watching a show on Lewis and Clark and it was mentioned that the rule (maybe from Napoleon) for planning supplies was to pack at least enough whiskey so that by the time you ran out it was too late for the people to desert and go back. Obamacare is running out on day 2 of a decades long trip.

[Starboard]

Obamacare was never designed to improve health care or lower costs. Incremental improvements could have been made, but that didn’t satisfy the liberals’ insatiable desire for power. Fundamentally, Obamacare is all about making people dependent on government. That is what it’s really all about.

In the end, the quality level of existing health care will suffer greatly. Whenever government gets involved, expect a costly and inefficient disaster. Think IRS.

[PoloSec]

No it will not collapse, it may be tweaked a bit here and there, but the Rino’s want it as much as obama does, just like amnesty.

Hope I’m wrong about that, but the facts in evidence leads me to the conclusion.

[madameguinot]

To ‘fix’ it:
1)Reduce Medicaid roles which increases demand and inflate costs, AND invites fraud/waste.

2) End tax subsidized employer health insurance which has grown third-party payer insurance programs. Same problem as above in a slightly different context.

3) Increase HSAs and make them more user friendly.

4) Strip unfunded mandates away from the health insurance market.

5) Tort reform.

5 ‘political third rails’ right there!

[madameguinot]

here here!

[Starboard]

The system before sucked because there was already too much government in the mix.
******
Very true. A most excellent observation.

Incidentally, my family physician “retired” early because he and his wife (a PA) didn’t want their practice subject to the massive bureaucracatic and costly nightmare that would be Obamacare. This was a personal inconvenience for me but I totally sympathized with his decision.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”Limbaugh theorem
“Well since the GOP won’t properly fund the program, we need to repeal it - as much as it hurts me to say this. Plus, the Senate Bill is not really the bill I wanted, I signed it because we needed something and I thought we could fix whatever fundamental problems we had at later time. I have listened to small business and the middle class and I have determined uh uh that we must repeal it. “
- Obama January 2014”

Will never happen. Dems will demand more funding and taxes on the rich and maybe repealing very unpopular stuff.
They will say it makes the case for a public plan.
They will portray killing it as wanting to kill non-white kids.

Also <50% will blame Dems for it failing, more they will blame the GOP for opposing making it more liberal.

Rush is usually wrong and I will add this one to my list.
He also used to say that Obama didnt care about winning 2012 and might not even run, then later he said Romney would win 2012 in a landslide as he predicted for MCain 4 years earlier. Standard Rush silliness.

[Buckeye McFrog]

It was designed to collapse and create a panicky outcry for Single Payer in its wake.

[going hot]

Obamacare is all about making people dependent on government. That is what it’s really all about.

Fundamentally, it is about the fed gov having more money coming in, which they have control over.

The health aspect? Oh yeah, you get a few bones, now and then.

[sickoflibs]

My thoughts too, medicare and social security have been bankrupt for years yet not a chance of repeal.

[Starboard]

the Rino’s want it as much as obama does, just like amnesty
*******
You are absolutely right about that. Good comment.

[ShakeNJake]

We need a like button. The only way we will ever gain control over our own health care again is when we directly pay for it ourselves.

[Wildbill22]

Obamacare is suppose to collapse. It is designed to bring about that outcome.

The answer will be yet more and even bigger government to rescue the situation in the single payer system, which should be recognized as the end goal of Obamacare.

Free market solutions are the only REAL solutions while remaining a free nation.

[Nervous Tick]

>> I do not, see anyone moving to actually FIX things.

Including you. You just bitch.

What’s your detailed plan to actually FIX things?

[Cringing Negativism Network]

I haven’t put a lot of thought into how to fix healthcare.

To tell the truth.

I just think we need to fix it, not break it again.

I’m not a healthcare expert. Maybe some other posters will post on their ideas.

Thanks in advance.

[riri]

It will go much further than taxing the rich. That may be their public words but in reality the costs of everything are going to increase exponentially probably with the addition of a VAT tax. It will start off small but once their client base ( the 49% and oldsters) is addicted to the idea of their medical care they will agree to anything to keep it. I'd imagine like most of Europe we will end up with a VAT somewhere in the 20% range.

Eating out, new clothes, etc. will all become luxuries. We are headed in that direction already.

[pallis]

Let me get this straight. Because our healthcare system had problems before Obamacare, we should make it worse with Obamacare, until we can make it better. Sounds like a plan to me.

[sickoflibs]

RE :’It will go much further than taxing the rich. That may be their public words but in reality the costs of everything are going to increase exponentially probably with the addition of a VAT tax. It will start off small but once their client base ( the 49% and oldsters) is addicted to the idea of their medical care they will agree to anything to keep it. I'd imagine like most of Europe we will end up with a VAT somewhere in the 20% range.”

I dont see Dems proposing that anytime soon, maybe the cap-and-trade VAT like tax on carbon fuels, that one seems to float their boats.