Writer and editor Robert Verbruggen presents in this National Review Magazine piece perhaps the best overview of the Obamacare battles and experience that we have seen. And he sees a silver lining in the current legislative stalemate: Though two simple changes—Congress ending the individual mandate and President Trump expanding other options through regulatory changes—both individuals and states now have more freedom without denying Obamacare to anyone who wants it. There will be some downsides, for sure, and conservatives shouldn’t be happy that so much of the law remains in place. But maybe, just maybe, the GOP might have bungled its way into something that works.
More than 12 million nondisabled, working-age Americans are enrolled in Medicaid. They receive medical care that is virtually free, and in most states they are under no obligation to work or seek work.
Sounds like a great deal.
Until you consider how much these “free” benefits may cost a recipient over the course of a lifetime. That could total more than $323,000 in foregone wages for men and over $212,000 for women, according to a study by the Buckeye Institute, an Ohio-based free-market think tank.
Planting a government-financed health-care system requires uprooting another–the employer-sponsored system–one that has grown, adapted, and evolved over decades. Policymakers should carefully weigh the implications of such a change, not merely for the public fisc, but for a health-care system that has long relied on employment-based insurance.
While Obamacare has been neither repealed nor replaced, it is being superseded. As President Donald Trump said, “We will deliver relief to American workers, families, and small businesses, who right now are being crushed by Obamacare, by increasing freedom, choice, and opportunity for the American people.”
The total number of Americans with health insurance rose from 292.3 million in 2016 to 294.6 million in 2017, the Census Bureau reports. Some of the following new reforms have helped 2.3 million more Americans enjoy medical coverage and alternatives under Republican leadership rather than Democrat mismanagement.