Paul Krugman puts forth his arguments about ENROLLMENT as THE evidence that Obamacare is a success in his latest fiction, “Obamacare Fails to Fail.” What a silly headline, an opinionated and fact-free fictional account that attempts to stifle and avoid any further modification of Obamacare that can only work to the detriment of consumers.
Why is Obamacare bad law that requires continued change? Because it FAILS to address the problems of our healthcare system that contributed to the problem of the 47 million uninsured.
Mr. Krugman much like other fetishists of Obamacare knows that if a law fails, it is incumbent on the American people to pressure their elected officials to modify the law or repeal the law.
We can see just how fast Democrats are jumping to try to do this with their current attempt to change the RFRA, the statute the Supreme Court used in support of its Hobby Lobby decision with their brand new proposed law, the Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act, 7/10/14, https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s2578/text.
Obviously, since laws can be changed, and since already Obamacare has been changed many times, “41 Changes to ObamaCare…So Far,” Tyler Hartsfield and Grace-Marie Turner, 5/22/2014, Galen Institute, http://www.galen.org/newsletters/changes-to-obamacare-so-far/, Mr. Krugman, as an Obamacare fetishist is desperate to downplay facts and experience that would support sweeping changes to Obamacare.
Mr. Krugman has our very natures on his side. We the public WANT to be able to absorb the changes to our healthcare system because we don’t want to think about it. Until we’re sick, we want to live in the fantastic world of Obamacare fetishists where we shouldn’t worry our little heads about health insurance or our healthcare system anymore.
Then there’s the more insidious problem that sick people don’t politically act on their own behalf, they’re rarely filling out surveys, they’re trying to get well, leaving the field of “dialogue” wide open for fetishists like Mr. Krugman.
Let’s face it, peddling reassurance is appealing. Obviously, most Americans are looking for reassurance, peace of mind, the very motivations that drive the purchase of insurance in the first place, “I don’t have to worry if this or that happens.”
Unfortunately it’s a falsehood that could leave each of us floundering physically and financially in a worse position than we were before Obamacare if we actually become unwell and require medical services, care and products to regain our health.
Obamacare as is FAILS to address the uncertainties created by our healthcare system that largely created the group of the 47 million UNINSURED.
The current focus on improved enrollment as an end in of itself exploits and reinforces the old-fashioned idea of “having” or “not having” health insurance as enough of an inquiry to determine whether or not we need to worry.
Without addressing the underlying reasons that the UNINSURED became a 47 million strong population of people, focusing on the features of a law that forces health insurance on citizens is simply a dangerous distraction and shift supporting a healthcare system that for the most part retains its same problems or worsens those problems that fed the ranks of the 47 million uninsured to begin with.
For consumers, dozing to the lulling reassurances of the fetishists is likely to create a false sense of calm much as relying on the publicity hounds and soothers who persuaded everyone that Obamacare was good law UNTIL we started living it in 2014.
Unfortunately, being persuaded by Mr. Krugman relies on an acceptance of the RISKS created or perpetuated by Obamacare for the underinsured, those individuals who are left to discover the inadequacy of their insurance plans when they are sick and actually need and expect the health insurance product they purchased to work the way they thought it would.
This is the BIGGEST failure of Obamacare. Having or not having insurance is enrollment but means NOTHING for an individual who discovers upon a diagnosis of medical need that his or her plan is grossly inadequate.
Our memories are short, especially when we’re healthy. We forget the bankruptcies from inadequate coverage that contributed to people opting out of health insurance in the first place because more and more people found they weren’t covered.
Obamacare worsens these risks by increasing patients’ share of payments. As noted in September, 2013 by James Doulgeris, “Patient Out-of-Pocket Expenses Rise, Squeezing Physician Cash Flow,” http://www.physicianspractice.com/blog/Patient-Out-of-Pocket-Expenses%20Rise-Squeezing-Physician-Cash-Flow,
Out-of-pocket expenses not including premiums have increased to an average $768 for each privately insured consumer in 2012 according to the nonprofit, non-partisan Health Care Cost Institute, and are projected to skyrocket as much as 50 percent in 2015 under Obamacare’s numerous mandates.
We forget that in addition to the predatory practices of insurers who dropped people for getting sick, that more often those people were charged a lot more for premiums that made insurance coverage unaffordable and they too opted out of purchasing health insurance. Yet premiums for the most part are anticipated to RISE in the coming year according to the INSURANCE INDUSTRY, as I discussed on 6/29/14, http://conoutofconsumer.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-obamacare-fetish-conclusion.html, quoting from AHIP:
“The ACA includes new taxes and fees at the federal level,” and that “According to a study by Oliver Wyman, for 2015, due to the tax alone, an individual purchasing coverage on his or her own will pay in total $170 in higher premiums and small businesses will pay an additional $530 for each family they cover," http://www.timeforaffordability.org/2015premiums/.
We forget that insurance companies make money by paying out fewer claims or covering less and that they prefer the bottom-heavy coverage of health-light…Finite and cheaper costs of checkups, “wellness” visits, and educational functions like how to eat better rather than covering treatments, medications and services for the sick. Some people realized that they could more cheaply obtain this health-light advice on their own and opted out of buying health insurance.
Yet, Obamacare is creating even less choice for SICK insureds focusing instead on requiring health-light preventive and educational services that are merely being used by insurance companies as a reason to raise costs and-or reduce coverage for the expenses of illness.
According to the Health Insurance Industry as discussed in my post of 6/29/14, “The Obamacare Fetish: Conclusion Jonathan Chait,” http://conoutofconsumer.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-obamacare-fetish-conclusion.html:
“AHIP, representing insurance companies also states, “Federal requirements,” (you know the ‘free’ prevention and essential health benefits), “mandates specific categories of health care benefits be included in health insurance plans. Costs associated with these new benefits are factored into premiums," http://www.timeforaffordability.org/2015premiums/”
As reported in, “The New York Times,” by Reed Abelson on 5/12/2014, “More Insured, but the Choices Are Narrowing,” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/13/business/more-insured-but-the-choices-are-narrowing.html
“…one thing is becoming clear: No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they will find fewer doctors and hospitals in their network — or pay much more for the privilege of going to any provider they want.”
We forget the crushing unavailability of health insurance for our poorest citizens pre-Obamacare, for part time workers, low earners, or the unemployed where Medicaid frequently was not an option, since Medicaid favors insuring parents with children rather than poor adults who wisely did not in addition to being poor choose to become parents.
After the Supreme Court required that the Obamacare Medicaid expansion must be reclassified as an option rather than a mandate, only about half the states chose such expansion which meant that the poor in all the other states were left in a WORSE position because nothing was done about section 1203 of the Affordable Care Act that provides for a reduction in federal money to hospitals for Disproportionate Share Hospital Payments, money provided to hospitals that treated uninsured and indigent patients.
We didn’t see the Democratic legislators jumping to FIX section 1203 of the law to accommodate the Supreme Court ruling that worsened health options for Americans in states without Medicaid expansion as we did in the Hobby Lobby decision.
Healthcare providers who wanted the assurance of being paid by health insurance started scrutinizing the best plans to maximize their take when treating patients, and boldly announced which health plans if any they would accept in their practices or opted out of accepting all plans requiring patients to pay cash for their services. More and more patients are finding that fewer providers are accepting their health insurance.
As reported by Kathleen Miles, “How Obamacare Leaves Some People Without Doctors,” 4/10/2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/10/obamacare-patients-without-doctors_n_5044270.html:
“…nationwide, about 70 percent of Obamacare plans offer fewer hospitals and doctors than employer-sponsored group plans or pre-ACA individual market plans, according to a study by consulting firm McKinsey & Company released in December.”
For years insurance companies began providing bottom-heavy health-light advice at the expense of providing sufficient choice and opportunity to obtain needed medical care and services in the event we get sick, dazzling us with the power to prevent our own illness, leaving those who became sick wishing things were different when they discovered the inadequacy of their health options upon getting a diagnosis requiring more than the many choices of health-light services.
Mr. Krugman is a fetishist, he’s an Obamacare devotee whose own opinion is so shadowed by his religious adoration of the law that he ponders:
“You might ask why, if health reform is going so well, it continues to poll badly. It’s crucial, I’d argue, to realize that Obamacare, by design, by and large doesn’t affect Americans who already have good insurance. As a result, many peoples’ views are shaped by the mainly negative coverage in the news media, “Obamacare Fails to Fail,” Paul Krugman, 7/13/14, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/opinion/paul-krugman-obamacare-fails-to-fail.html
And there is Mr. Krugman's motivation, finally. If you’re patient enough to read through the fantastic and magical world of Obamacare according to Mr. Krugman, you can discover Mr. Krugman’s moving force...To counteract “negative coverage in the news media,” even at the sacrifice of reality.
