President Obama this week announced that there were 7.1 million people who have signed up for health insurance through the healthcare exchanges. I find this number curious, given that the administration has consistently said since last fall that it is impossible to give accurate numbers of how many people have signed up.
The President does not however indicate how many people have paid a premium, and actually are insured. This is like going on Amazon.com and putting an item in your cart, but you don’t own the item till you check out and pay for it. The President also does not say how many of these people were previously uninsured. After all, wasn’t the whole idea behind Obamacare to insure the uninsured? The President also does not indicate how many of these people signed up after having their policies cancelled due to not being approved by the government.
Some states are releasing numbers showing that there are more people uninsured now, than before.
Our President is celebrating having people lose health insurance they liked, that cost them less than their new Obamacare policy. These new policies have premiums that on the average cost much more per month, and carry a much higher deductible than their old policies. Is this something to celebrate?
Those that like the new policies, are generally low income people who are being subsidized by the rest of us. Obamacare thus is a redistribution of wealth from middle class or better, to the lower class.
I contend that a better option would be to offer individuals the same tax break that employers get when offering their employees health insurance coverage. Offer individuals a tax credit for buying health insurance in the individual market. This would solve the problem of prior existing conditions by funding state run high risk pools, and including a few commonsense regulations allowing individuals to switch from employee funded insurance plans, to individual plans without having an increase in their premiums due to prior existing conditions. It would save taxpayers money, and allow every American who wants health insurance to buy a policy. It would lower health care costs by eliminating the middle man (whether insurance or government) and it would let people shop for value. People could keep their plans if they like them, and we could repeal every last word of Obamacare. Get the government out of our lives, and restore our liberty.