I don’t have much time to comment but wanted to flag a good post by Austin Frakt at the Incidental Economist about the CBO report on the removal and addition of distortionary forces by Obamacare on the labor market.
One of the ways Obamacare tends to remove a distortion is to allow people to move more freely in the labor market and not remain in a job simply to hold onto health care. Though, as heirs to the Puritans, allowing people to do more of what they really want is probably regarded more as a bug than a feature in some circles.
One of the many ironies is that the eternally negative opponents claim that they support freedom. I’m beginning to think that they just support “Freedom”.
It is true that many people are saddled to crappy jobs, but stay because of “ben-fitz.” Without an income to fuel the ACA premium, however, everyone is effectively still tied to their jobs, as nobody has the cash reserves to fund their Obamacare premium in absence of employment.
Of course, nobody on Obamacare will ever approach the gold-plated benefits packages enjoyed by public-sector employees. If all public-sector employees were forced to join the Obamacare pool, and pay the going Obamacare rate, ACA might be more attractive and affordable to everyone else.
Well, your Republican colleagues helped kill the public option at its birth, so we never got the chance to see this happen.
Also, interesting that many states (not Indiana, of course) are rethinking not expanding Medicaid because of the coverage gap that’s emerged among people who would have qualified for assistance under ACA, but aren’t because states spitefully wouldn’t expand Medicaid (even though the federal government was picking up 100 percent of the costs). States are learning that it’ll cost more to treat underinsured people than it would be to extend the coverage.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304851104579363621009670740?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304851104579363621009670740.html
That doesn’t make sense. There’s nothing stopping governmental units from canceling their health plans and sending their employees to the exchanges. Let’s see some liberal mayors stand up for the ACA in the only way that really matters.