The conventional approach is to assume that government ownership and government regulations are necessary correctives to perceived “market failures.” The new approach recognizes that “government failures” are a curse that can be just as bad and sometimes worse.
In Washington, the healthcare debate isn’t about rescuing the people in the individual insurance market from ObamaCare’s high premiums and poor coverage. Nor is it about improving patient welfare, or reducing medical costs. It’s about using the “coverage for all” mantra to suck huge sums of money out of the private sector with ObamaCare taxes, premiums, and regulations.
There’s a shiny new high-rise in Boston. It’s strikingly beautiful, with deep blue glass that reflects the sky. The other day I drove past the new tower and saw the huge sign: “To rent or own, call …”
Before the Senate voted on a “skinny” alternative to Obamacare, it was considering the House version of repeal and replace – called the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA).
The one really good (and really amazing) thing about Obamacare is that the Democrats put a cap on future Medicare spending. This was not a ten-year cap. It goes on forever – essentially restricting Medicare’s growth to the growth of the economy. According to the Medicare Trustees reports, the day Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act he wiped away more than $50 trillion in unfunded Medicare liability.
Paul Krugman is an editorial writer for the New York Times and a winner of the Nobel prize in economics. Yet more than any other economist in the country, he routinely discredits the very profession that has honored him.
John C. Goodman appeared on the Fox News program Happening Now to discuss the congressional debate over the “Skinny Repeal” Health Care bill and the future of the Affordable Care Act.
Republicans are bogged down in their efforts to pass a health reform bill for one basic reason: they are too obsessed with repealing the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) instead of reforming the health care system and solving people’s problems. Put differently, they have forgotten Donald Trump’s campaign promise to make health insurance better and less expensive and leave no one behind.
Sick and tired of worrying about health “reform”? Let me divert your attention with another “yuge” problem — Social Security. Social Security’s trustees just released their annual report. It’s a very long document, with the most important part buried deep in appendix table VIF1.
Recriminations are already underway – at the White House, on Capitol Hill, in the news media. They are debating whose fault it is that Senate Republicans can’t pass a health care bill. Was it the fault of Mitch McConnell? Or Mike Lee? Or the half dozen other senators who balked?