For a number of years we have been writing about Obama Care and the disaster, pain, and anguish it has generally caused. It has restricted health care access, raised health care costs, added to the national debt, suppressed economic growth, and has no real shot of ever reducing health care costs in this country since it never addressed the root causes of high health care costs in this country.
To access past posts in the subject, just enter “the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care” in the search box above. You will then be presented with probably over a hundred posts containing hundreds of reasons why Obama Care was such an idiotic approach from day one.
1) Yesterday, we discussed two options to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. The first option was to minimize as much government interference in the health care industry as possible and let the free market drive down costs while improving quality.
The second option was to turn the entire domestic health care industry over to the government in which the government operates every facet of health care under a so-called single payer system. However, given how the government and American political class manage to screw up everything they touch, e.g. the rollout of the Obama Care legislation and data systems last year, you can rest assured that under a single payer system, everyone would have health care insurance that was inferior and overall more costly to the country.
However, there is a third approach that most of those in the Washington political class ignore. It is an approach that we have pointed out many, many times and it involves simple economics: supply and demand. If you reduce the demand for a product than the price of that product comes down, this is a universal fact of life.
When reviewing the remedies proposed below, consider some statistics that were published in the October 24, 2014 issue of The Week magazine:
- 300,000 Americans die every year as a result of obesity.
- 450,000 Americans die every year as a result of smoking.
- 86,000 Americans die every year due to alcohol consumption.
These deaths do not include the millions that die from various forms of cancer and a myriad of aging diseases. Far fewer Americans die each year from not having health insurance, which makes one shake their head at why the Obama administration went after health care insurance coverage as a priority when millions of Americans are dying and suffering from other causes.
We do not have a health insurance cost problem in this country, that is the result of other root causes to high health care costs. Eliminate or reduce the impact of those root causes and health insurance costs plummet since you have taken the risk out of providing health insurance.
And what are those root causes:
- Americans eat too much and eat too much of the wrong kind of food, resulting in an obesity epidemic and the high health care costs to treat obesity.
- Government farm programs support the surplus and unnecessary production of corn crops which result in the production of low cost high fructose corn syrup, a driver of obesity since most of our processed food is infested with it.
- Americans smoke too much, resulting in the high health care costs to treat smoke related illnesses.
- Americans do not exercise enough, resulting in the high health care costs to treat unhealthy living.
- Americans as a whole are aging fast, resulting in higher and higher incidences of aging diseases such as Parkinson's, dementia, etc., resulting in high health care costs.
- The nation’s medical tort system needs to be reformed in much the same way that achieved the success that has already been attained at the state level when various states reformed their medical tort laws.
- Cross state line insurance company competition barriers need to be broken down to increase competition and reduce consumer costs of purchasing health care insurance.
- Eliminate government subsidizes for corn production and force food manufacturers to find other, healthier ingredients for their products.
- Phase in a tax/fine system over five years on food manufacturers who do not improve the caloric and salt content of their products. Force them to use their research teams, scientists, and funds to improve our food chain’s quality or face a financial burden for not doing so.
- For example, give Pepsi’s food scientists five years to reduce the caloric content of their regular Pepsi drink or be fined for every unit of high caloric Pepsi they produce.
- Force the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to launch a nationwide, long term public health program to improve the eating habits and exercise habits of Americans. Fund the program by eliminating the existing garbage science programs and projects that the NIH funds today and funneling the food manufacturer fines collected from the steps proposed above.
- Stop kidding ourselves that Michelle Obama's drive to get kids to eat healthy while at school is a strategy, it is a failure. The public health program needs to be long term and strategic, not a short term government and political dictate.
- Force the National Science Foundation (NSF) to launch long term research programs into solving the mysteries of aging diseases and cancers, funding the research by eliminating the existing garbage science programs and projects that the NSF funds today.
- Force the NIH and NSF to launch long term research programs to treat and eventually terminate tobacco, drug, and alcohol addictions, and short term support programs that use known cures to prevent or minimize addictions.
- Fund many of these initiatives by cleaning up the extensive fraud and waste in existing government health programs and funneling those savings into the proposed research and public health programs proposed here.
Even if every uninsured American signed up for Obama Care, Americans would still eat too much of the wrong kind of food, would still drink and smoke too much, would still not exercise enough, would still suffer aging diseases, etc.
Clean up the behavior and health insurance costs would drop like a rock while the quality of life for Americans would soar. Neither of these things are going to happen with Obama Care.
2) But Obama Care might have a larger problem besides the fact that it did not understand root causes and is thus, doomed to failure. The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided to take up a review of a lower court decision that ruled on whether or not Obama Care customers who got their Obama Care policies on the Federal government health exchange are entitled to Federal subsidies.
In the legislation’s wording, it is pretty clear that the writing shows that only those Obama Care customers who got their policy on Obama Care exchanges run by the states themselves are entitled to Federal subsidies. The high court will hear a challenge to Obama Care's subsidies via the King v. Burwell lawsuit which contests the financial help available to some enrollees on the Federal insurance exchanges in 36 states. This is similar to another court case known Halbig v. Burwell.
In Obama Care's first year, 36 states defaulted to Healthcare.gov, the Federal Obama Care health insurance policy exchange. Almost 90% of those people who enrolled through the Federal/national website are receiving subsidies to pay for their Obama Care policies. These are the subsidies that this court case calls into question.
Without these subsidies, private insurance policies within the Obama Care program will likely become too expensive for many Obama Care policy holders. Given the choice of paying higher insurance premiums without the help of subsidies, many healthy policy holders will likely cancel their existing Obama Care policy, leaving the insurance companies stuck with a less healthy mix of Obama Care customers, increasing their costs even more. Thus, without the subsidies, Obama Care enrollments could enter into a death spiral with policy cancellations causing higher costs resulting in more cancellations, etc.
Why did this happen? Think about a few years ago to the infamously stupid comment made by then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: “We have to pass the bill (Obama Care) to see what is in it…” Maybe if she and others had actually read the legislation before passing it we would not be faced with this impending disaster if the Supreme Court interprets the law as it was written and millions of Obama Care customers lose their subsidies and probably their health insurance coverage.
This would put us right back where we were five years ago before Obama Care took place. Except that we would have stressed out tens of millions of Americans and wasted billions of dollars so far for so little progress. Sounds about right for a Washington political class effort: lost of costs, lots of hoopla, lots of stress, very little progress. A good look at the details behind this impending disaster can be found at:
3) We will finish today’s post, as we have the previous two posts, with real life stories from people that have had their lives and families disrupted and stressed out as a result of Obama care. These stories come from the website, www.ourhealthcarestories.com:
MARLENE from California - After being promised by Obama that we could keep our present insurance, I soon realized that was just another lie as my insurance was canceled. I am now paying twice the price every month for something "similar" to what I had. Previous I was allowed 5 doctor visits a year for a $40 co-pay. Now I get two visits a year for $50 co-pay per visit. In addition the detectable (sic) is so high and the insurance covers so little that I often get a $200-$500 bill after the doctor visit.
CURT from North Dakota - I'm a 58 year old retired school teacher. I pay my own premiums. A year ago I was paying $252 a month I now pay $538 per month. My wife is a dental assistant who has always had her insurance payed for. Last month her boss of 27 years informed her that her premium went UP $356 per month. He was nice enough to split it, but now she gets $175 per month deducted out of her check. Less coverage and higher deductables (sic). Last week she found out she has to pay $75 per month out of her own pocket for perscriptions (sic), where before her old plan paid for it..so we are paying about $530 per month more now than a year ago...remember I am living on a teachers pension....this really stinks
A good mix of disaster situations today: a remedy that works where Obama Care fails, a lurking Supreme Court case that could topple the whole Obama Care effort, and more Americans suffering under the Obama Care implications and realities. More unfolding disasters tomorrow.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
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Please visit the following sites for freedom:
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