At a time when America is faced with global competition in many labor markets, rapid technological advancement and change, the protracted loss of a fair chunk of its manufacturing base, and a positively toxic gap between the political establishment and voters, enough Americans chose to try and implement another huge, unfunded liability with the ACA (pushed through with only one-party support).
So, what about expanding Medicaid in Ohio, which Republican presidential nominee John Kasich chose to do?:
Akash Chogule at Forbes:
‘Although Kasich has urged other states to follow his lead, his unilateral expansion should instead serve as a warning sign to other states. When he first proposed expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, the Kasich administration predicted just 365,000 able-bodied adults would sign up in the first year, with that population growing to 447,000 by 2020.
But within seven months, the program had already exceeded its first-year projections. Altogether, more than 650,000 able-bodied adults have been added to Kasich’s unilateral Medicaid expansion. That skyrocketing enrollment has led to major budget overruns for Ohio.’
Now is probably a time for reflection and strategic thinking, not mere burn-it-down-style populism and (understandable) disgust.
The quicker the ambient change, the more consequential decisions made now will likely become later on.
Avik Roy supports some sort of universal care, but certainly not Obamacare. Back in 2014, he wrote the following:
‘Indeed, the ACA will especially drive up the cost of private health insurance that individuals purchase directly. The law will dramatically expand Medicaid, a program with the poorest health outcomes of any health insurance system in the industrialized world. And the ACA, despite spending over $2 trillion over the next decade, will leave 23 million lawful U.S. residents without health insurance, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
In other words, the U.S. health care system remains in need of substantial reform, in ways that address the ACA’s deficiencies as well as the system’s preexisting flaws.’
I can only point out that many of the supporters of the law have what I think are positively utopian notions of equality, fairness, and social justice; notions which often precede sustainable economic and legal design.
Charlie Martin from a while ago:
‘Whatever solution we look for though, the really important point is this: the whole basis of Obamacare, the notion that we can have more people, getting more benefits, and pay less, is just impossible. The arithmetic doesn’t work. And if you think that’s “unfair,” I’m sorry.’
After the political promises and hot-air clear a bit, many of the underlying problems still remain, but now with a fairly dysfunctional vast expansion of Federal Authority on top, along with a lot of obligations that aren’t being met, not even in the short-term.
Related On This Site: Avik Roy At Forbes: ‘Democrats’ New Argument: It’s A Good Thing That Obamacare Doubles Individual Health Insurance Premiums’…Megan McArdle At Bloomberg: ‘Health-Care Costs Are Driven By Technology, Not Presidents’
Richard Epstein At The Hoover Institution: ‘The Obamacare Quaqmire’
From The New England Journal Of Medicine Via CATO: ‘The Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate’From If-Then Knots: Health Care Is Not A Right…But Then Neither Is Property?… From The New Yorker: Atul Gawande On Health Care-”The Cost Conundrum”…Sally Pipes At Forbes: ‘A Plan That Leads Health Care To Nowhere’…