I spoke yesterday to the Memphis Economics Club about America’s looming fiscal crisis, and I did my usual song-and-dance routine about potential Greek-style chaos in the absence of genuine entitlement reform.
But I confess I was stumped when, after the speech, someone from the audience asked me what was going on with Obamacare.
I can pontificate at length about why government intervention has screwed up our healthcare system, and I can wax poetic about the need to restore market forces both with tax reform and with significant changes to Medicare and Medicaid.
But I was asked to speculate about the Obama Administration’s strategy, and I didn’t know what to say other than they’re in panic mode and they’re arbitrarily changing or ignoring the law based on short-term political imperatives.
To get an idea what I’m talking about, here’s what the Wall Street Journal opined.
Liberals say they believe in a living Constitution, and apparently they think the Affordable Care Act is a living document too. Amid one more last-minute regulatory delay, number 38 at last count, the mandate forcing nuns to sponsor birth control is more or less the only part of ObamaCare that is still intact. On Tuesday evening, the Health and Human Services Department announced that the six-month open enrollment period for ObamaCare insurance that began in October 2013 and was supposed to end on the last day of March would be extended indefinitely. …The expanded enrollment period was slipped into a legal crevice related to “exceptional circumstances” signing up such as natural disasters including “an earthquake, massive flooding, or hurricane.” …By the way, as part of this delay HHS will make no attempt to verify real enrollment problems and will instead rely on what the agency calls “the honor system.” No one will be asked why they need an extension. …This pattern of dishonesty and political improvisation has come to define ObamaCare, which is the law for some people, sometimes, except when it isn’t. Nothing HHS claims can be trusted, and little that the President of the United States promised about his signature law has turned out to be true.
Well, I must confess that I (sort of) agree with part of what the White House is doing. Obamacare has been a natural disaster.
Building on this theme, Abby McCloskey and Tom Miller have a column in the WSJ with a blunt message about the mandate.
The individual mandate has failed. After a last-ditch effort with President Obama himself encouraging “young invincibles” to sign up before the deadline, …the White House announced that people who applied for coverage on the federal health-insurance exchange will have until mid-April to finish the paperwork. …The individual mandate had the least effect on those it was supposed to encourage to gain coverage—the uninsured. … Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that about one million uninsured Americans will sign up for the ObamaCare exchanges before open enrollment ends. For perspective, that’s about 2% of the 48 million uninsured. A larger share of the exchange enrollees is likely coming from people whose previous coverage was canceled (due to other ObamaCare rules) or those who found a somewhat better deal for exchange coverage (due to much more generous low-income subsidies).
Wow, just 2 percent of the uninsured. That’s a high failure rate, even by government standards.
At this stage, the only good response is to laugh.
So let’s enjoy some Obamacare cartoons, starting with this gem from Glenn McCoy.
Reminds me of my quip about Syria and Obamacare, which even got noticed by Rand Paul!
Here’s Chip Bok having some fun with the government’s disgusting enforcement mechanism.
Brings to mind this flying monkeys cartoon.
Here’s McCoy again, this time mocking the left’s claim that we should be happy about the people who have lost their jobs because of Obamacare.
This Michael Ramirez cartoon is a classic. I especially love the eyes (a talent that Ramirez often exploits).
Needless to say, the White House’s disregard of its own law is largely driven by a desire to avoid election-day backlash, which is why this Gary Varvel cartoon is a good way to close today’s collection.
P.S. If you have a strange yearning to watch me predict the collapse of the western world (basically the same topic of my speech in Memphis), here’s a recording of my recent speech to the Center for Political Studies in Denmark.
And if you get bored with more than 60 minutes of my supposed wisdom, you can skip the rest of the video and look at the real highlight of my trip to Copenhagen, the “welfare state party ship.”
[…] observed, reported, mocked, written, and explained that Obamacare is a […]
Obama is an amazing political entrepreneur. He discovers and exploits the nooks and crannies in our system of government, if you can call it a system.
He passed a disastrous law whose effect is to actually kill some people through restriction and bureaucracy.
ObamaCare has released insurance companies from their long-term liabilities (sick subscribers). Before ObamaCare, insurance companies could not drop your coverage when you became sick; Obamacare now forces them to drop all of their customers, then sign them up again at higher prices and fewer benefits.
ObamaCare guarantees insurance companies a profit no matter what.
Instead of watching insurance companies to guarantee fair dealing, the government has allowed (or encouraged) them to construct narrow and inadequate provider networks and limit qualifying hospitals. Many people can get care only by driving 90 miles to a qualifying doctor, or conveniently paying full, uninsured rates to a more local, out-of-network doctor.
After decrying the unfairness of catastrophy-only policies with high deductibles, ObamaCare supplies catastrophy-only policies with even higher deductibles, free contraceptives and mammograms, and “wellness” visits. But, the wellness visits are free only if nothing new is discovered, and no prior illness can be discussed during them. Oh yes, the deductibles are twice as high as in the former policies, and the policies are twice as expensive unless the patient qualifies for subsidies.
Wellness visits require discussions about smoking, alcohol and drug use, obesity, and gun ownership. The doctor has to prove that he had these discussions.
The law was designed to sign up young people, who least need insurance, and who are being asked to pay three times its market value. I applaud most of them for being smart enough to refuse this offer to pay a large and hidden tax. ObamaCare is teaching the young to save money and bear the risk, instead of encouraging them to insure their small risk for a low price. This is a great way to teach community feeling and encourage personal responsibility (smile).
EasyOpinions.blogspot.com
The Denmark presentation was well worth watching.
Regarding the questions on how much debt is too much, it depends on the country. Obviously the problem in Japan will be domestic roll-over. As retirees stop rolling over their savings and spending it, who will take up the slack? For France, their high tax rates will destroy both GDP and tax revenues, so debt will accelerate and GDP will fall.
When the bond vigilantes decide to bail, they will have to put their money somewhere. Once they realize the whipsaw is on, with interest rates skyrocketing for risky investments and dropping like a stone for safe havens, all hell will break loose. The rush for hard assets will be on.
You wote “As the old saying goes, you can dress me up, but you can’t take me out.”
That’s not true. You dress up pretty well. It’s just that when we do take you out, we often have to take you back to apologize….
[…] The Multi-Faceted Farce of Obamacare […]