Little-Acorn
10-02-2013, 03:54 PM
Obamacare is, of course, merely another wealth-transfer scheme. In this case it uses "health care" as its excuse to redistribute money from people who earn more, to people who earn less.
And it turns out, it doesn't even do that very well.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304906704579111433416080064.html
Brendan Mahoney Saves ObamaCare
Great news! They got a 30-year-old dude to sign up!
By JAMES TARANTO
"People complain of having to stand in line for hours, often in vain, and many are losing patience with the government's explanation that unsavory conspirators are to blame for the nation's problems," reports the New York Times.
But enough about Venezuela. Let's talk about ObamaCare.
"President Barack Obama on Monday said he "absolutely" expects glitches and problems," Politico reports. And these glitches, according to the president, will continue at least until the end of the year: "In the first week, first month, first three months, I would suspect that there will be glitches."
Glitches are good, argues our favorite former Enron adviser [leftist fanatic Paul Krugman]: "Lots of people logging on and signing up on the very first day . . . is an early indication that it's going to be fine, that plenty of people will sign up for the first year of health reform."
Naysayers will counter that this doesn't prove huge numbers of people are signing up; it could be that ObamaCare is unpopular and its computer systems are incompetently designed. Moreover, whether ObamaCare "works" will be determined not by how many people are signing up but what kind of people. ObamaCare relies on price controls that jack up premiums on the young and healthy in order to keep them low on the old and sickly. If the latter but not the former are signing up in huge numbers--that is, if people are responding rationally to incentives--then the scheme is unsustainable.
(snip)
Meet Brendan Mahoney, the young man who is saving ObamaCare. He's 30 years old, a third-year law student at the University of Connecticut. He's actually been insured for the past three years--in 2011 and 2012 through a $2,400-a-year school-sponsored health plan, and this year through "a high-deductible, low-premium plan that cost about $39 a month through a UnitedHealthcare subsidiary." But he wanted to see what ObamaCare had to offer.
(snip)
So, how much of a premium is strapping young Brendan Mahoney paying to help make ObamaCare work? Oops. The Courant reports that Mahoney "said that by filling out the application online, he discovered he was eligible for Medicaid. So, beginning next year, he won't pay any premium at all."
So the great success story of ObamaCare's first day is the transformation of a future lawyer, who was already paying for insurance, into a welfare case.
And it turns out, it doesn't even do that very well.
---------------------------------------
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304906704579111433416080064.html
Brendan Mahoney Saves ObamaCare
Great news! They got a 30-year-old dude to sign up!
By JAMES TARANTO
"People complain of having to stand in line for hours, often in vain, and many are losing patience with the government's explanation that unsavory conspirators are to blame for the nation's problems," reports the New York Times.
But enough about Venezuela. Let's talk about ObamaCare.
"President Barack Obama on Monday said he "absolutely" expects glitches and problems," Politico reports. And these glitches, according to the president, will continue at least until the end of the year: "In the first week, first month, first three months, I would suspect that there will be glitches."
Glitches are good, argues our favorite former Enron adviser [leftist fanatic Paul Krugman]: "Lots of people logging on and signing up on the very first day . . . is an early indication that it's going to be fine, that plenty of people will sign up for the first year of health reform."
Naysayers will counter that this doesn't prove huge numbers of people are signing up; it could be that ObamaCare is unpopular and its computer systems are incompetently designed. Moreover, whether ObamaCare "works" will be determined not by how many people are signing up but what kind of people. ObamaCare relies on price controls that jack up premiums on the young and healthy in order to keep them low on the old and sickly. If the latter but not the former are signing up in huge numbers--that is, if people are responding rationally to incentives--then the scheme is unsustainable.
(snip)
Meet Brendan Mahoney, the young man who is saving ObamaCare. He's 30 years old, a third-year law student at the University of Connecticut. He's actually been insured for the past three years--in 2011 and 2012 through a $2,400-a-year school-sponsored health plan, and this year through "a high-deductible, low-premium plan that cost about $39 a month through a UnitedHealthcare subsidiary." But he wanted to see what ObamaCare had to offer.
(snip)
So, how much of a premium is strapping young Brendan Mahoney paying to help make ObamaCare work? Oops. The Courant reports that Mahoney "said that by filling out the application online, he discovered he was eligible for Medicaid. So, beginning next year, he won't pay any premium at all."
So the great success story of ObamaCare's first day is the transformation of a future lawyer, who was already paying for insurance, into a welfare case.