Friday, October 8, 2010

The First Problems of Obamacare and Health Care Waivers

A story in yesterday's New York Times described some of the issues that were coming to light now that the first phase of Obamacare is going into action.  It would seem that one of the first big problems is coming from companies like McDonalds and from some insurance companies as they are requesting and being granted waivers by the federal government in order that they may maintain even their comparably minimal coverage that is substantially below that of which the new law requires.

It would seem that over the last several weeks, these waivers have had to be issued in order to mollify threats by some health insurers that they were intending to abandon certain markets, refuse to sell certain types of policies, or drop out of the business altogether.  Basically these companies are unable to make a profit and remain solvent when burdened with the dictates of the Obamacare law otherwise.

According to the NY Times article "To date, the administration has given about 30 insurers, employers and union plans, responsible for covering about one million people, one-year waivers on the new rules that phase out annual limits on coverage for limited-benefit plans, also known as 'mini-meds.' Applicants said their premiums would increase significantly, in some cases doubling or more."

So evidently the purportedly unintended bitter fruits of the Obamacare law are already beginning to ripen.  It would seem that already many private companies and insurers are not going to be able to meet the standards and requirements set forth in the un-constitutional health care act.  As more of these regulations and requirements go into effect for companies and their insurers, rest assured that we will see even more insurance companies refuse to offer certain plans or quit the business altogether. 

Of course this will create less competition for our health care insurance dollar and thereby drive up costs, which we were all told would not happen.  Ultimately, over the course of the next decade, one can count on seeing a lot of insurance companies quite the business and thereby in the end leaving only the federal government to pick up the tab via a single-payer government-run health care system.  (Just like President Obama and the progressives wanted all along.) 


Despite all of the rhetoric to the contrary from Obamacare supporters, in just around six months after the law's passage we are already are seeing some of our worst fears about this law come to fruition. 


As I have said ad nauseum, when you enact a law that provides for huge disincentives for doctors, you will lose many of the existing doctors and discourage new talent from entering the profession.  Then when you add 30 million more people to the rolls of those that are now theoretically covered for health care, what results is a simple mathematical example of supply and demand economics.  You have fewer doctors available to provide service to a far greater amount of patients.  The inevitable result is that costs rise, waiting times increase, and ultimately rationing will occur.  Welcome to the beginning of the Obamacare nightmare!

2 comments:

Dave Splash said...

Which proves, definitively, that if the Democrats had not included any of the idiotic "ideas" from the Republican Tea Party and done what the American people voted for - single payer - none of these issues would be issues at all.

But the GOPTP and the Chamber of Commerce ensured we bail out the least necessary industry in existence - health insurance - and prop them up for decades.

Darrell Michaels said...

Splash, if not repealed, you will indeed have your single-payer communistic health care soon enough.

The fact that it is now being done incrementally by this un-Constitutional law gives us Americans a chance to correct this travesty before it really is too late.