Is Obamacare's Medical Socialism Working?
Liberals would like you to believe it is, rising coverage costs tell a different story
The real curse of Obama-don't-care is that instead of discussing how to fix America's admittedly crazy health care
system, we will now be arguing about how to make this exercise in socialism work — or prove to liberals who want to believe that it is working that it is not.
They've been touting the tremendous success of the law ever since healthcare.gov stopped crashing anytime four people logged on simultaneously. Their new tactic is to take the direst predictions of the law's critics, show how those didn't come true, and, voila, declare that everything is just peachy.
But on the real world test of what the law is actually doing to the wallets of exchange customers, a very different picture emerges, I point out in The Week. I note:
Every year, companies selling coverage through ObamaCare's exchanges have to ask state regulators to approve their premiums for the following year — a practice more appropriate for the Soviet Union than an allegedly free-market economy. And this year, according to several news reports, some are requesting increases of over 50 percent…
What's more, these hikes are likely just a prelude to far bigger ones in future years. Why? Because two programs — risk corridor and reinsurance — that were meant to "stabilize" rates in ObamaCare's first few years so that insurers could obtain the right mix of enrollees are set to expire next year…
So, to recap: ObamaCare has fallen short of its enrollment target, hiked insurance premiums, failed to cut down on ER visits, and flopped in its attempt to improve hospitals' bottom line.
Other than that it's working great.
Go here to read the whole thing.
