Perverse incentives of ObamaCare! Surprised?

America under ObamaCare, Day 86: Perverse incentives by Staff /Laura Ingraham

Obama to the American Nurses Association Wednesday:

We're seeing the start of a profound shift as reforms begin to take effect. We're giving ordinary consumers and small businesses more power and protection in the health care system -- and we're knocking down barriers that stand between you and the people who you care for.

Karl Rove in Thursday's WSJ:

A Midwestern contractor told me he pays $588,000 for health insurance for 70 employees, contributing up to $8,400 a year for a family's coverage. If he stops providing health insurance, he'll pay $2,000 per employee in fines, and the first 40 employees are exempt from fines altogether.


It's also dawning on employees that they will lose their coverage. Some will blame management; many more will blame those who wrote this terrible legislation.


Employees who lose coverage get to select a policy from a government-sponsored insurance marketplace called the "exchange." This will be subsidized by taxpayers. Depending on his income, a worker will have to pay between 8% and 9.8% of the cost.


But there are a few hitches. Employers now pay for employee health plans with pre-tax dollars, but workers who buy into one on the exchange pay with after-tax dollars. Families making less than $30,000 and individuals making less than $15,000 a year will be dumped into Medicaid, widely viewed as second-class health care.


Either Mr. Obama was stunningly blind to these perverse effects when he promised people could keep their coverage, or he felt that admitting his plan would collapse employer-provided health coverage could keep it from passing. Either way-self-deception or deliberate deceit-health reform is going to turn out far differently than was promised. And because more workers will be dumped into subsidized coverage, taxpayers are likely to pay much more than the $1 trillion-plus price tag claimed by ObamaCare advocates for its first 10 years.


It doesn't end there. Another way the new health reform will have consequences that are the opposite of what was promised can be found in new draft regulations (its Interim Final Rule) from the Department of Health and Human Services. The proposed rules could cause as many as half of all workers to lose their existing coverage.

https://www.lauraingraham.com/b/America-under-ObamaCare,-Day-86:-Perverse-incentives/403923087952794010.html