Perhaps the most interesting result of the bungling of HealthCare.gov is the now transparent reveal that Obamacare is nothing more than an effort to put health care in the United States under complete government control regardless of social or financial cost.
According to US Census Bureau health insurance coverage statistics for 2012 almost 85% or 263.2 million of 311 million Americans already had health insurance coverage in 2012. Roughly 168 million were covered by private health insurance, 86 million by Medicare or Medicaid, and 9 million by other health programs, leaving approximately 48 million not having health coverage for some reason (including those voluntarily declining to purchase coverage).
Why do we need to put health insurance, reimbursement, and determination of care under centralized government control to meet the needs of 15% of our population? Only to satisfy the ideologues determined to socialize all health care (and everything else).
The HealthCare.gov disaster is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
American’s who have never had coverage for financial reasons now have the option of paying a tax or purchasing possibly subsidized coverage with deductibles and annual out of pocket maximums most are unlikely to be able to afford.
When 85% of Americans see the coverages they don’t need that they are forced to pay for, when they find out their Doctors have not agreed to be part of the plan they can now afford, when they find out how much more they will be paying, when they find out the healthcare.gov “marketplace” is a shame, the game will be over.
Americans need to start working now to replace this disaster with a combination of free market reforms and direct assistance for those in need. The NCPA.org offers some detailed alternatives. Additional simple changes include selling health insurance across state lines and transparent pricing for health care services in advance of care.
Regards, Pete Weldon
americanstance.org