Obamacare’s Policy is a Financial Sinkhole

Rather than faulting Republicans for not offering an alternative to Obamacare (actually they recently have), Ted Kaufman should be explaining why the law is worthy of “improvement.” It is evident by now the law has promised too much and delivered too little. Moreover, it was sold to the public under a deliberate set of false pretenses. Let’s examine the record:

-Obamacare was going to bend the cost curve down. Even optimists now concede premiums are headed the other way due to policies laden with hidden costs and “one size fits all” benefits. A taxpayer bail­out for insurers might be needed to prevent program insolvencies.

-It would solve the uninsured crisis. While some new participants have gained access, others have lost affordable coverage. There are still tens of millions of uninsured Americans, and while that could change over time, the immediate trend suggests things will get worse before they get better.

-People already insured were told they could keep their plan and doctor to avoid health care disruptions. This promise has proved to be the biggest whopper of them all! It was a carefully crafted illusion to obtain public support that was knowingly false.

In light of these failures, why should we continue to rebuild our health care structure on a massive Florida­style sinkhole? Obamacare has not even started to achieve its major objectives except for its covert plan for wealth transfers from healthy younger, financially vulnerable people to older sicker ones. Meanwhile, effective control of our health care system is being shifted to an unaccountable federal bureaucracy that will inflict further levels of distress as remaining portions of the law are implemented.

It seems evident to me that Obamacare cost benefit assessment needs reevaluation. Sens. Tom Coburn, Orrin Hatch and Richard Burr have recently offered a viable market based alternative to the chagrin of pro­gressives who have staked too much faith on a law that was always too dependent on the heavy hand of central planning and social engineering. Obamacare doesn’t deserve to be rescued, it should be replaced.