Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (36521)	5/5/2014 4:13:53 PM
From: TimF	1 Recommendation Recommended By Brumar89 Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

The ACA limits a small subset of policies... Its limitations apply to all policies. But also increases cooperation with millions on newly insured. Mandating someone buy a policy isn't really cooperation. And newly insured or not, many previous actual and potential ways of cooperating are now locked out by the law. If things like that were so common, you wouldn't have to go back two years to find one. I didn't go back at all, that was just a major silly restriction that I remembered. Other restrictions still exist and get added every day. Most of them are more technical, less clearly headline fodder, but the number of controls and restrictions is massive and growing. It gets to the point where the total effect is more than the sum of the parts. People are not just limited from doing what isn't allowed, they are pushed out of areas of activity completely because complying with the laws while operating in certain areas (mostly but not only business) is so complex and costly and risky that many see it as not worth it. Risky because even if you think your complying you could be committing a felony by violating some obscure rule.

To: Road Walker who wrote (36521)	5/5/2014 4:44:19 PM
From: i-node	1 Recommendation Recommended By Brumar89 Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

>> The ACA limits a small subset of policies... This really isn't correct at all. While the term "limitation" is in the eye of the beholder, it is absolutely clear that benefits are going to be lost on many, many policies as a result of ACA. For example, Fred Smith was on TV last night pointing out that FedEx employees are going to be facing higher deductibles and other cuts in benefits. Not because that was intended by the ACA but because government intervention usually ends up doing more harm than good. Which is what will happen with ACA. I am reminded of the greatest contemporary economist, Milton Friedman's comment -- "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara, within five years there would be a shortage of sand." This is exactly what we already see in health care -- not solely as a result of ACA, but manifested precisely because of it -- disruptions in supply are totally evident at this point, but misallocation of resources will follow, it just takes time. The problems with Medicare didn't surface until a number of years after implementation. And even today, most people do not understand what a mess Medicare is. That does not mean there isn't a mess, only that the money hasn't run slap out just yet. It will.