Obamacare supporters will be celebrating the law’s sixth birthday tomorrow. It’s hard to forget about its three biggest party fouls. John Goodman, one of the foremost experts on all things health policy, breaks them down one by one in his recent interview with Michael Cannon, direct of health policy studies at the Cato Institute:
- Government Coercion: You are forced by the government to purchase health insurance in a time where health care costs are rising faster than income growth.
- Inequitable Subsidy Distribution: In states that have expanded Medicaid, low-income people who now qualify for Medicaid receive an $8,000 subsidy for health care. For non-expansion states like North Carolina, those with similar incomes receive $11,000 in subsidies for a private health insurance plan. Meanwhile, low-income workers who are offered health insurance through their employer can be fined $2,000 if they opt out.
- Flawed Exchanges: Although insurers can no longer deny a consumer with a pre-existing condition, plans are still designed in an attempt to attract the healthy (think narrow networks).
