Sunday, October 13, 2013

There’s Nothing Affordable About the Affordable Care Act


A few years ago President Obama appeared on television and told the American public he was going to give them the ultimate free lunch – he said his new Affordable Care Act (ACA) would not only cover 30 million uninsured people, but also reduce the cost of insurance premiums for the typical American family by $2,500. What were we thinking? Was everyone drinking his Kool-Aid?

Now, as we suffer the heat of reality, it is becoming very likely that Americans will be put through extraordinary pains and expense in order to buy a very similar apple for the same price (or more) as an older apple – it will just be called an orange.

This administration and its bought-and-paid-for lawmakers chose to tinker with, and add to, an already complex and teetering framework, rather than to tear it down and build a more sensible and less elaborate structure. The ACA doesn’t really change, but rather tries to reinforce, the basic structure of US health insurance, with its essential reliance for the non-elderly population on employer provided private health insurance. In addition, the ACA system is way too complicated and will take years to be fully operative. (Medicare only took a year to implement.) But the truth is, when has our government ever done anything within the timeframe and for the price they first announced? (If you believe differently, see Kool-Aid in paragraph one).

In addition, experts are announcing that the ACA will not actually reduce administrative costs for the multitude of private insurance companies at all. On top of that, faced with the need to keep premiums as affordable as possible in “the exchanges,” it already appears that the state directors and ACA federal administrators will be under extreme pressure to reduce the benefit package required of all insurers participating in the exchanges. One of the latest articles in Forbes Magazine states that Obamacare will actually increase Healthcare spending for a typical family of four by $7,450. In that same article, it is mentioned that the experts working for Medicare’s actuary have again reported that in its first 10 years, Obamacare will boost health spending by “roughly $621 billion” above the amounts Americans would have spent without this misguided law.

Read more at http://eaglerising.com/2221/theres-nothing-affordable-affordable-care-act/#rGqRoumSCWHtp4SM.99

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