Obamacare Is Now on Life Support

The Fiscal Times ^ | 10 Dec, 2015 | Edward Morrissey

[okie01]

If you get laid off, if your company fires you, if you change to another employer, you should keep your insurance regardless.

Which is exactly what I proposed as a reform to the pre-Obamacare system.

And you asserted that I "was part of the problem".

[Cringing Negativism Network]

If I misrepresented you or anyone I apologize.

That is the basis of what I believe. Strongly.

If it was your position, I apologize. For real.

[okie01]

Accepted.

[BeauBo]

So essentially, you want the government to mandate away the risk of individual financial disaster from medical bills.

The mandate would force others to insure you, no matter what.

As you put it, “you should keep your insurance regardless. Forever.”

Essentially, the government would pretend (take credit) for making this risk (which is inherent in life) go away, by forcing somebody else to pay the cost. It would alter the terms of the private contracts between individuals and insurance companies.

Unfortunately, the costs are real, and there is no magic inexhaustible sump which can absorb them all (a consistent problem with socialist schemes). That is why all these co-ops and insurance companies are going bankrupt under the obamacare mandates. The last of the solvent obamacare state co-ops (Maine) has now turned into a money loser, with no foreseeable way to return to balance, under the mandate.

Obamacare is financially collapsing in a big way (which was the point of the article), because it was based on a fraudulent sales job playing on people’s fears, rather than any realistic economic policy.

If the government deregulated to allowed it (each state, as well as Federally), insurance companies could provide portable policies (some exist) from job to job, but costs would have to change over time, and people could be dropped if their risks became too high for the insurance company.

If the government was not the biggest player in the medical care market, prices would be a fraction of what they are for individuals to get actual medical treatment.

Bottom line: Wishing that government will make the risks of life go away are a pipe dream. Giving them the power to try to force it is a recipe for economic disaster and political oppression.