The Problem with Obamacare

I have stated my views on health care in previous posts (August 2009).  The real problem is that it costs too much.  The Affordable Care Act does not reduce health costs; even its authors stated that was not their intent.  Instead, it uses the time-worn socialist solution which is to subsidize the costs with taxpayer money.

In my previous posts, I stated that more than 30 cents out of every health care dollar goes to insurance companies.  The Affordable Care Act mandates that everyone buy health insurance.  It does nothing to reduce the amount physicians pay for malpractice insurance.  And it does nothing to reduce the excessive costs of prescription drugs.  Instead, the act places taxes on the sale of individual homes, fishing gear, and other things to subsidize the ridiculous charges of the insurance policies.  And it used taxpayers' money to hire hundreds of people to administer the program.

A letter to the editor in the October 13th Los Angeles times offers one example to illustrate the problem:

  The real question concern­ing U.S. medical care is not whether Obamacare allows people who could not buy in­surance the ability to buy in­surance or whether a 26 year old can stay on his or her par­ent's policy; it is why a routine appendicitis bill is $59,000.

  The Wall Street Journal published an article about a man who needed a hernia op­eration. Because of his high-deductible insurance policy, he was responsible for $20,000 of the estimated $23,000 for the operation, and the hospital wanted the $20,000 upfront.

However, after bypassing in­surance and working with his doctor, they negotiated a cash price and got his surgery done for around $3,000 saving him $17,000. This scenario appears to be all too common with most medical procedures paid by third-party insurance pay­ments where there is no price transparency.

The ACA will not solve this price problem, but will simply hide it in a massive income-transfer scheme that will do little to reduce costs or make the delivery of medical ser­vices more cost efficient.

Eventually, unlimited de­mand and expanded third-party, medical-care payments that insulate consumers from paying for services rendered will cause an unsustainable rise in overall medical costs, which will lead to price con­trols, and when they fail (and they will), to rationing of med­ical care (death panels).

    Richard Walborn
      Anaheim

 

 

 

My readers know that I am not a Tea Party fanatic.  In fact, I see some merit in a single-payer approach to health care.  But the only way to make health care truly affordable is to outlaw the cost excesses currently imposed by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and other wealthy contributors to the campaigns of our elected Congressmen.  I don't think that will ever happen.