Obamacare: Wheels Coming Off the Clunker

Betsy McCaughey

The central parts of ObamaCare don’t roll out until 2014, but the wheels are already falling off this clunker. The latest news from four federal agencies is that 1) insurance will be a lot less affordable than Americans were led to expect, 2) fewer people than promised will get insurance and 3) millions of people who have coverage through a job now will lose it, thanks to the president’s “reforms.” Oh, and children are the biggest victims.

The Affordable Care Act is looking less and less affordable.

Start with the IRS’s new estimate for what the cheapest family plan will cost by 2016: $20,000 a year to cover two adults and three kids. And that will only cover 60 percent of medical bills, so add hefty out-of-pocket costs, too.

The next surprise is for parents who thought their kids would be covered by an employer. Sloppy wording in the law left that unclear until last week, when the IRS ruled that kids won’t be covered.  Starting in 2014, the law will require employers with 50 or more full-time employees to offer coverage or pay a penalty. “Affordable” coverage, that is — meaning the employee can’t be told to contribute more than 9.5 percent of his salary. For example, a worker earning $40,000 a year cannot be required to pay more than $3.800.

But the law doesn’t specifically mandate family coverage — and now the administration says that won’t be required. ….To Read More…… 

My Take - I know...I know....."no one could have foreseen this”.  Horsepucky!  Anyone with one eye could have foreseen this, and yet seemingly intelligent people are shocked at what is happening.  One more thing!  I have said for years that when they throw out the statement - "it's for the children" - when promoting some program or other you had better look farther, deeper and wider than everyone else because something about that program stinks.  And inevitably it isn't for the children - it's to the children.  

The consequences of all of these policies - domestic and foreign – are already disastrous, yet there was plenty of historical foundation to have the correct understanding, but historical reality and ideology are often at odds.   When ideology becomes more real than reality humanity suffers, and has done so over and over and over again with the same failed policies.   Thomas Sowell once noted that some things seem so unreasonable that they can succeed nine time out of nine and no one will want to attempt it the tenth.  And other things seem so reasonable that they can fail nine times out of nine and everyone willing accepts it the tenth.  Why?  They can  still sell these insane policies to people because no one reads history, no one teaches history, and sadly, most of humanity could care less.  At my age I feel it’s like spitting in the wind.