“These reforms will be gradually implemented leading up to 2014, when the biggest part of the law — the expansion of coverage to an estimated 30 million of the currently uninsured — is set to kick in. If we get it right, more people will have the security of health insurance, the nation can become healthier and spending will be restrained. If things don’t go according to plan, it could disrupt the $4.78 trillion health care economy by squeezing hospitals, health insurance companies and state governments. Waits for doctor visits could get even longer.”
“There’s good reason to believe that in short order, the health plans sold in Obamacare’s heavily regulated, state-based insurance exchanges will degrade into something akin to today’s Medicaid managed care plans. If a lot of consumers who presently get their health coverage at work are dumped into these state exchanges (as many independent analysts predict), then tens of millions of Americans could find that they’re worse off under the new law and that their health benefits have been substantially devalued.”
“Because ObamaCare relies heavily on Medicaid — the federal/state program that provides health insurance for the poor — to expand coverage. But Medicaid is already swallowing up state budgets, forcing states to cut back on everything else, especially support for two- and four-year public colleges.”
“Unless Obamacare is repealed, it will add $1.7 trillion in new spending. That much is certain. Any offsetting reductions are dubious, at best. Budgetary analysis and historical experience point to the same conclusion: If fully implemented, Obamacare will drive up health costs for all Americans and widen the river of government spending and debt.”
“One of the most tragic failings of ObamaCare is that it will make it harder for many of the most vulnerable citizens – patients with no option but Medicaid – to get care. Medicaid is cumbersome, complex, and wasteful – already the worst health care program in the country. But rather than making changes to improve or modernize this program designed to finance care for the poor, the Obama administration is trying to convince states to add at least 16 million more people to Medicaid, including families making more than $30,000 a year.”
“The health overhaul law expands health insurance to millions more people without significantly increasing the number of physicians or other providers. And Obamacare has exacerbated the physician shortage because many are considering leaving the practice of medicine altogether rather than practice under the dictates of Washington bureaucracies.”
“Tomorrow, the government’s liberty-crushing mandate that has elicited widespread outcry and led a federal judge to grant a preliminary injunction against the rule for a for-profit business will officially take effect. On August 1, Obamacare’s preventive health services mandate will be implemented, and with it the Health and Human Services (HHS) anti-conscience mandate. After Wednesday, nearly all employers will be forced, at the beginning of their next health plan year, to pay for coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization—regardless of moral or religious objections.”
“But although Romer is right about the severity of the problem, she is dead wrong about ObamaCare’s role in addressing it. ObamaCare did not lay the foundation for sensible cost control, and did not partially ease budgetary pressures, as she asserts. Quite the contrary, ObamaCare will pour an ocean of gasoline on the health entitlement fire, and the supposed cost-control mechanisms are a mirage.”
“In the wake of the Supreme Court’s hairsplitting decision to uphold Obamacare, Republicans in Congress have redoubled our efforts to get this monstrosity off the books. If the court won’t do it, we must. The rationale for such a vote is obvious. When Obamacare first passed, no one knew what its full impact would be. Even Nancy Pelosi famously said we’d have to pass the bill to find out what was in it.”
“So what’s not to like about the health law for young Americans? The under-appreciated truth is that the ACA has serious adverse impacts on young Americans, far more significant and longer lasting than temporary eligibility to remain on a parent’s insurance.”