Ben Harakel

Intro to Economics

Obamacare

It Gets Better

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/10/obamacare_and_republican_criticism_the_health_care_law_s_early_missteps.html

Let us assume for a moment that everything that Obama promised about the new Affordable Care Act was completely true. When the "highly anticipated" website used to purchase the healthcare launched the bashing began. Everything about the policy that was supposed to be Obama's legacy maker has been wrong from the beginning. I personally feel a little bit more justified now that all of the "cracks and inconsistencies" in the law that Republicans argued against are now resurfacing in the awful promises that Obama made to us. The major problem of the whole Affordable Care Act was that Obama made promises without considering basic economic principles. The one promise (see the other three on an earlier post) that is under the most fire right not is "You can keep current your healthcare if you like it". When the new website came online companies like Independence Blue Cross sent out messages to their current policy holders informing them that their current policies would expire. People went ballistic that they were about to lose their current policy and immediately the ludicrous messages came flowing from the Obama Administration trying to CTA (cover their a#$). Republicans on the other hand started throwing their old criticism back at the law. In the law Obamacare it clearly says that in 5 years all insurance policies had to meet government standards and if not they would be disallowed (thus disproving Obama's claim).

The economic principles behind the wonderful blunder that Obama are very clear. To start off, people respond to incentives. Why would an insurance company continue to offer more plans that necessary, especially when they might be making more money on one type of plan. The government cannot control most of what businesses do and in this case the business did what was best for it's future. I really think that Obama had some kind of delusion that the insurance companies would back him and continue to lose money instead of leaving him high and dry. It also makes me really angry that Americans supported the policy without even reading the bill. Democrats in the White House and Congress forcibly passed the bill without looking at the now evident flaws that the Republicans were voicing just because Obama wanted them to. Thousands of people will now lose their current preferred health insurance and be forced to buy insurance that may be inferior in quality all due to a blind partisan command from a liar at the helm. Still Obama keeps uttering "It will get better, trust me". I'm sure that the website will get better but I cannot see how the bill can. While I never trusted the Affordable Care Act or Obama (for that matter)  I can say now both have even less of my trust.