John Sexton:
The Chicago Tribune published a blistering editorial Friday which says Obamacare is not only failing but has already failed because it “flunked Economics 101 and Human Nature 101.”
Come November, the grim trudge across the increasingly barren Obamacare landscape begins anew. Illinois consumers likely face staggering price hikes for individual insurance policies. Some types of plans could cost an average of 43 percent to 55 percent more. Ditto across the country: A first tranche of states approved 2017 rates with similarly cardiac-arrest-inducing premium increases.
After highlighting the withdrawal of insurers in Illinois and elsewhere the editorial offers a list of problems each of which begins, “Obamacare failed because…” Here’s a sample:
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 too many carriers simply can’t cover expenses, let alone turn a profit, in this rigidly controlled system. Take Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, the state’s dominant Obamacare insurer. Last year, for every dollar the carrier collected, it spent $1.32 buying care and providing services for customers, according to BCBS President Maurice Smith. No wonder BCBS is proposing rate increases from 23 percent to 45 percent for its individual plans.
The editorial board balks at predicting this all adds up to a “death spiral” but quickly adds, “neither do we see a mathematical alternative.”
Its failed but liberals will still want to use it for more dumb regulations on us all
@Spurwing Plover:
It failed because it was never intended to work. It was nothing more that a ploy to move the healthcare industry to a top down government controlled single payer system. Obama lied repeatedly when he said it would reduce premiums by $2500 and you could keep you doctor.
So sad our so called representatives in Congress chose to do nothing about this.
Obamacare is only a failure in so much as one believes the left implemented it as anything other than a means of moving towards the national socialist takeover of medicine. Each and every prediction of the real world negative impact of this leftist shibboleth has come true. The leftists will keep pushing to double down on this impossible scam for the sole purpose of giving government a monopoly on healthcare, spewing their bogus drivel about “compassion” and “fairness”.
You know….like the compassion and fairness demonstrated by the IRS and the VA.
@July 4th American: exactly. Rule number one of the eight radical rules by saul alinsky states take control of the health care and you control the people.
Everyone who had a 9th grade economics class said it would not work. Only the true believers in Hillary Care and Obama Care will forever believe the liberals.
@Enchanted:
It is of curiosity to me why the two staunch leftists here, paid responders if you will, have not engaged in a defense of this post. Perhaps their minders have forbade them comment……
@July 4th American: It is the weekend. They must wait until Monday before they get their talking points.