The Folly of ObamaCare

The Folly of ObamaCare

The big points, in my view not even controversial:

(1) It increases uncertainty and decreases confidence when recovery from the Great Recession requires re confidence and less uncertainty.
(2) The ACA discourages job creation by raising the price of hiring.
(3) Uncontrolled health spending is the U.S. system's main problem -- and the ACA makes it worse.

The nugget here:  Spiraling health costs crowd out other government programs and squeeze wage increases by diverting compensation dollars into employer-paid insurance. Because insured people use more health services than the uninsured, the ACA (covering an estimated 30 million more) raises spending.

(4) Obama's program also worsens the federal budget problem. Driven by Medicare and Medicaid, health care already exceeds one-fourth of the budget and is headed toward a third. It's the crux of the problem. So Obama creates another huge health program. The administration's retort: the program lowers the budget deficit. This is rhetorical hocus-pocus. Here's what happens. From 2012 to 2022, the ACA raises federal spending by $1.762 trillion, estimates the Congressional Budget Office. However, all of this and a bit more is offset by tax increases and assumed cuts in Medicare. But these tax increases and cuts could have been used to shrink the huge budget deficits that pre-existed Obamacare. Now they can't; moreover, the Medicare cuts might be repealed or reduced.
(5) The ACA discriminates against the young in favor of the old.

First points, the principles of this kind of legislation - there's no one alive who can write these kinds of rules and accurately anticipate the impact. Pretending otherwise is diving into a utopian dream.