Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Jonah Goldberg: Lots of losers under 'Obamacare' - latimes.com

Jonah Goldberg: Lots of losers under 'Obamacare' - latimes.com: "For the record, there are losers under Obamacare. Here's a short list: 1) taxpayers who will carry the load of what the Congressional Budget Office says will be a $2-trillion price tag when the law is fully implemented; 2) the CBO also says it's likely that at least a few million workers will be pushed off their current insurance coverage, even though the president insists you can keep your existing insurance if you like it; 3) innumerable and unknowable numbers of sick people who will not be screened for various diseases because some bureaucrats' protocol says it's too expensive; 4) Roman Catholic and other religious institutions forced to violate their values; 5) a few million so-called freeloaders who don't want to buy health insurance for perfectly rational reasons."

'via Blog this'

Earlier in the piece the NPR correspondent defends the idea that this is great news for America's 50 million uninsured. Some of my co-workers also said something like, now I can get health insurance! How so?

If you don't already have insurance, you now have to pay a "tax" for not having insurance, unless you fall within an exemption. But if you decide to buy insurance, it is likely going to be much more expensive for at least three reasons. First, it must cover more things that should not be insured to begin with--like contraceptives. Second, if you don't have insurance, you're probably a young person, and now you will have to buy "community rated" insurance, meaning you as a young person pay the same price as someone that's old and decrepit. You can't buy insurance without subsidizing and old person. Third, your insurance will be more expensive because of all the people who will simply wait until they get sick and buy insurance because insurance companies cannot discriminated based upon pre-existing conditions (guarantee issue.)

Am I missing something? Maybe these people are thinking they will now qualify for medicaid?

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