An interview with ObamaCare Watch’s Project Director Jim Capretta in which he discusses the ruling by a federal judge finding ObamaCare’s individual mandate unconstitutional.
“Yesterday, within hours of the release of this judicial ruling, Rasmussen released a new poll showing that Americans support the repeal of Obamacare by the colossal margin of 60 to 34 percent. Independents favor Obamacare’s repeal by a margin of more than 2 to 1, 62 to 28 percent. The combination of this polling and yesterday’s ruling shows that, whether the political establishment wants to believe it or not, the political and legal challenges to Obamacare are not remotely frivolous. Rather, they are deadly serious – and they are gaining steam.”
The misaligned economic incentive structure in the health sector create waste and worsen care. ObamaCare does not fix this problem. “The legislation accordingly focuses
on broadening access by means of insurance reform and not on
changing the incentives driving health care treatment and overall spending. Indeed, on numerous occasions, Congress and
the administration pulled their punches in addressing those
problems — usually by trading stricter reforms in those areas
for coverage provisions that they valued more.”
“The federal district court’s decision declaring portions of federal health care reform unconstitutional reaffirms that the federal government has limited and enumerated powers. The theories advanced by the federal government in support of the mandate were without bounds and could have justified virtually unlimited federal control of private activity. Reforming America’s health care system is important, but just like everything else, from national security to environmental protection, it must be done in a way that’s consistent with constitutional principles.”
“In a stinging rebuke to the Obama administration, a federal judge Monday invalidated a key provision of the recently passed health care law, saying that it ‘exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power.'”
ObamaCare created the budget-busting CLASS Act, which the new Deficit Commission has proposed to repeal. “Repealing CLASS is a start, but Congress must seriously reconsider the entire health-care bill, paying particular attention to its two most expensive provisions: the Medicaid expansion and the health-insurance subsidies. Beyond their exorbitant price tags, these programs increase the ranks of those dependent on government by tens of millions of people.”
“To stay in business under ObamaCare, doctors will have to adjust. Some will see fewer patients themselves and hire nurse practitioners to help carry the load; others will work part-time and supplement their income elsewhere. Many will join groups or become salaried employees of hospitals or clinics.”
“First, ObamaCare’s state-side implementation is going to be very difficult and very complex. Even big, liberal states like California are going to have trouble keeping up with the law’s requirements. Second, that complexity is going to set up a system that’s 1) going to create a lot more interdependence between the government and the private sector and 2) begging to be gamed. That’s presumably why private firms, especially in the consulting sector, are already investing heavily in staff who can explain what the government’s doing and, presumably, how to take advantage of it. “
Despite its 2000+ pages, ObamaCare still will require over ten thousand pages of new regulations to govern its implementation.
“Parente offers a clear, market-oriented alternative to the current centralized health-IT procurement approach, which is supplemented with insufficient bribes and penalties to achieve private-sector compliance with interoperability standards. He concludes that this more practical “back to the future” path to harnessing health information in real time can deliver
long-overdue dividends in medical-fraud control, insurance-coverage administration and underwriting, and improved health care quality.”