Continued Inaction
The inaccurately named Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, passed Congress 15 years ago. Virtually from the start, politicians on both sides said it was inadequate—typically those on the political left said it did not go far enough to put government in control of our care and insurance, while typically those on the political right said it was a bad plan that should be thrown out.
And in that decade and a half, Republicans have been clear about wanting change…repeal and replace, or individual savings accounts, or any of a dozen other ideas. Yet not a single one has gained traction…and near as I can tell, not a single one has been fleshed out enough to actually be called a plan as opposed to a small idea with a couple of talking points attached.
Such bravado after the government reopened last month; sure, the Senate promised Democrats a vote on continued expansive subsidies, but Republicans promised to have their solution to the health care crisis in place as a counter-measure.
Well, they don’t. Probably because if the issue was that easy to solve to begin with, they’d have solved it years ago.
It seems evident to me that giving government money—which is, of course, taxpayer money, but stay with me—giving government money to insurance companies to reduce the cost of premiums to citizens is by logic going to fail. There is no market incentive for the companies to keep costs and premiums low…because the government will use taxpayer dollars to buy down the premium cost.
Recent history shows something quite similar in higher education. The cost of higher education—tuition and all the rest—skyrocketed as government-guaranteed student loans increased. What difference does it make to the college; after all, they’ll get their money upfront thanks to the government, so go ahead and jack up tuition and fees…the student just has to pay more over a longer period of time.
Same thing in principal with government buying down health insurance premiums. There is no industry incentive to keep prices low. A program that gave government money to individuals so they can direct its use would force the companies to actually compete for business.
But the big companies grease the palms of enough lawmakers to prevent that from ever happening.
Once someone or some group gets on the gravy train…it’s a lifetime ticket, it seems. So if you’re holding your breath waiting for either political party to fix health care costs…better go back to breathing. The health ramifications of holding your breath too long are probably not covered by that government-subsidized insurance.
