The Insurance Death Spiral

I’m pretty sure this was the plan all along:

So there are penalties for not purchasing insurance. But there’s no serious enforcement mechanism allowing the IRS to make sure those penalties get paid?

Given the importance of the mandate to the health reform project, this doesn’t make much sense. The law was designed to expand the number of individuals with health insurance. But without the ability to enforce the individual mandate, any expansion will likely be significantly smaller than projected.

But remember, if you like your plan, you can keep it! Untilless your insurance company goes out of business…

[Update a few minutes later]

You mean they don’t have to cover pre-existing conditions? More thoughts here and here.

Gee, do you mean that when a multi-kilopage bill is rushed though without anyone actually reading it, there could be screwups? Who would have guessed? Certainly not some of the morons in my comments section, who think that passing bills without reading them is just dandy.

Every day, November is a day closer.

[Update a couple minutes later]

And speaking of November approaching, this isn’t good new for the Dems, though it’s great news for the Republic:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the health care overhaul signed into law last week costs too much and expands the government’s role in health care too far, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds, underscoring an uphill selling job ahead for President Obama and congressional Democrats.

…Supporters “are not only going to have to focus on implementing this kind of major reform,” says Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard. “They’re going to have to spend substantial time convincing people of the concrete benefits of this legislation.”

This is hilarious. The president and the Democrats have spent the last fourteen months telling us how wonderful this plan is, to no avail. Now that it’s going to start to actually bite, they think that they’re going to be able to explain it better, and be more convincing? Especially when they don’t know what’s in it any more than they did before it passed?

And note, this is a Gallup poll, which means it’s “adults.” I haven’t checked Rasmussen yet, but I’m sure that the news for them from “likely voters” is even more grim. For them, that is, not for us.

5 thoughts on “The Insurance Death Spiral”

  1. You can’t be “Campaigner in Chief” without having something to campaign for, Rand.

    And, with the “help” that Obama has given to recent candidates in Senate races, I’m sure the Dems are perfectly happy to have him out campaigning for this new law instead of blowing all of their individual races one at a time.

    The few clips I saw on the local news when he came to town last week would have been hilarious, if they weren’t so stomach-churning. Why do we even have an Oval Office for the POTUS, if he’s always on the road?

  2. It is entirely possible (and this is not a theory I invented) that Obama wants the Dems to lose and lose big in November. He may believe that having a GOP congress to run against in 2012 is his best bet for a second term.

  3. The law was designed to expand the number of individuals with health insurance. But without the ability to enforce the individual mandate, any expansion will likely be significantly smaller than projected.

    That hasn’t been the case in Massachusetts, which has exceeded its coverage goals without heavy-handed mandate enforcement.

  4. Well, I’m certainly planning on dropping my coverage in 2014, since I’ll save about $1,000/month by doing so. I’m reasonably certain I’m not the only one considering this strategy.

  5. That hasn’t been the case in Massachusetts, which has exceeded its coverage goals without heavy-handed mandate enforcement.

    And according to the state comtroller, the only way Massachesetts is staying above water is via heavy subsidizies from the federal government. Good luck being able to do that for all 50 (57 according to Obama) states.

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