One concern about ObamaCare, IMO, should be the question of where will the money for all those massive "subsidies" and other new costs come from. "Government paying" sounds nice, but our government is long broke - by now, probably, busy borrowing its 18th trillion.
That's my question. It is obvious that only the adversely selected are signing up, and far short of 7000 at that. So there are two gaping holes: one, the risk pool is lopsided; two, will the penalties, taxes on medical devices, etc pay for the subsidies and other costs?
If the average policy is say $800/mo for a family of four, or $9600/yr (plus high deductibles and copays), and the penalty is $1,250 once it kicks into 2.5% territory, the economic choice is obvious. Pay the penalty and self-insure. A bunch of $1250 penalties is not going to pay for this sucker. Say 50 million people choose the penalty. That's 60 billion dollars per year, or 600 billion over ten years. The selling price for Obamacare was $1.3 trillion over ten years (which means it will actually probably cost 5 trillion.)
The budget is going to crater and the insurers are going to abandon the exchanges. What a train wreck. |
