THCB contributor and Cato Institute Director of Health Policy Studies Michael Cannon on the severability clause, which looms large after Tuesday’s Supreme Court hearing.
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Everything you always wanted to know about the Health Care system. But were afraid to ask.
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Or you could just write the law correctly the first time with out the progressiveism.
I remember a week or two ago when I first saw this I tweeted something along the lines of “if this is what it’s come to, you might as well fly it upside down because..DISTRESS!”
Shall I quote from the AHIP / BCBSA amicus brief?
Basically, “Strike the Mandate, the whole thing has to fall, and we want denials, exclusions, recissions, back, we want a return to unrestricted MLR, etc. i.e., reset the clock to 2008.”
They make it quite clear.
John, imagine that (God forbid) next year you have a child that is born with a congenital heart problem that requires intense medical care and multiple heart transplants throughout the child’s life. Your family risk premium explodes by 100x.
What would you do the next time you have to renew your individual insurance policy? If you have a renewable policy, what would you do when that policy goes into a death spiral and the plan closes 10 years from now? What would you do if you have to move to another state and have to get a new policy? What will your child do when he/she is too old to be in the parent’s policy?
Will you suck it up and assume the financial costs your family is generating? Or will or you try to get a job with employer-provided insurance where cost-shifting ensures that lots of healthy employees subsidize your health care expenses?
This is a great discussion regarding the cost shifting associated with Obamacare. As a young, healthy and active individual, I find it extremely troubling that, if the individual mandate stands, I will be forced to buy government price controlled health insurance to shoulder the costs of those who partake in unhealthy eating habits and exhibit a sedentary lifestyle;
what you succinctly described in your argument here by suggesting that, the individual mandate breeds irresponsibility of one’s life choices.
On a different note, as you’ve stated again and again, Obamacare is founded on a flawed economic understanding of the healthcare system in the United States. A number of the Nation’s leading economists, including Douglas Holtz-Eakin, have commented on this problem and explore various ways the policies inherent within Obamacare will do little but intensify the healthcare dilemma in the U.S.
For a quick look, here is a brief op-ed:
http://bit.ly/GRQ16H