Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Obamacare Update

I now have insurance through the ACA, aka Obamacare. I have even seen my doctor, same one as before. My premiums have gone down considerably as has my deductible.

So obviously I see Obamacare as an unqualified success. I kept my doctor and saved money, as promised by President Obama.

Ok, not really. Paragraph one is all true. But I am supposed to evaluate a federal public policy by its effect on me? I have never evaluated public policy by how I am personally effected and I am not going to start now.

For those who do consider public policy by its direct effect on them, I have a simple question. Why isn't that considered selfish or greedy?

I have always suspected that Obamacare will produce some winners and some losers. For this year, it looks like I will come out a winner. But is it good public policy?

No, it is not. That will be proven, if it hasn't been by now, over time. We will know this by full disclosure of data. We suspect that we have a problem because the Obama administration has not been forthcoming or transparent with the data. Will we get enough young and healthy people to sign up and, in effect, subsidize people like me who are getting older and will be statistically increasingly likely to rack up medical expenses?

No we won't as there aren't enough young and healthy folks with enough money willing to foot the bill. I can't say I blame them either. Soon enough this will stress the entire system and require a government bailout of the insurance companies and/or huge increases in premiums, deductibles, copays and rationing via provider restrictions.

The ACA will fail soon enough but if you have Obamacare I suggest you get the medical attention that you have been putting off as soon as possible before the system implodes.

1 comment:

Nemo said...

It's success is largely a function of the metric you use to evaluate it. If you judge the ACA by it's effectiveness solving the problem it was suppose to fix (insuring the uninsured) it's an unmitigated disaster. If you measure it by the amount of Republicans it's going to put into office on November 4th, 2014 it's a resounding triumph! Remember that date, November 4th, 2014. It's gonna be fun on the bun!