The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

ObamaCare Is Doomed

Posted on | January 22, 2014 | 30 Comments

Megan McArdle recounts the basic case:

In a nutshell, Obamacare has so far fallen dramatically short of what was expected — technically, and in almost every other way. Enrollment is below expectations: According to the data we have so far, more than half of the much-touted Medicaid expansion came from people who were already eligible before the health-care law passed, and this weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that the overwhelming majority of people buying insurance through the exchanges seem to be folks who already had insurance. Coverage is less generous than many people expected, with narrower provider networks and higher deductibles. The promised $2,500 that the average family was told they could save on premiums has predictably failed to materialize. And of course, we now know that if you like your doctor and plan, there is no reason to think you can keep them. Which is one reason the law has not gotten any more popular since it passed.
The administration and its supporters have been counting on the coverage expansion to put Obamacare beyond repeal. So what if the coverage expansion is anemic, the plans bare-bones, the website sort of a disaster? It’s a foundation upon which we can build — and now that so many people have coverage, the thinking goes, Republicans will never dare to touch it. The inevitable problems can be fixed down the road.
But it’s far from clear that this is true . . .

Read the whole thing.

 

Category: Barack Obama, Health Care

Comments

30 Responses to “ObamaCare Is Doomed”

  1. Finrod Felagund
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 1:04 pm

    When Megan McArdle can win debates on the Upper West Side taking the position ‘Obamacare is doomed’, well, it’s just a matter of time before its doom is at hand.

    Offtopic– cargo cults in Vanatu: http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/01/22/the_cargo_cults_of_tanna_worship_an_american_wwii_soldier_and_prince_philip.html

  2. rambler
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 1:16 pm

    It maybe doomed, but it will doom other stuff before it implodes. The politicians did not set out to improve the system. It wasn’t about any of they things that the politicians said it would be or would fix. None of them read the bill so technically they would not be lying no matter what they said about the bill. They can’t hide the new reality that’s been create , the hardship it is causing or the negative consequences which will occur. We deserve better from our elected officials.

  3. pabarge
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 1:57 pm

    I think Megan McArdle voted for Barack Obama. Let’s all ask her. Ms McArdle, did you vote for Barack Obama?

    This woman lives in the outermost fringes of the hinterland of the clueless. Move along.

  4. davod
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 3:00 pm

    Enrollments will increase dramatically now that the Administration has bullied the states into accepting telephone signatures.

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  6. Unix-Jedi
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 4:25 pm

    C’mon, she’s a Libertarian.

    As she often says, I’m a Libertarian but….. [insert whatever Democratic idea is rolling and non-Libertarian reasons to support it…]

  7. Adjoran
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 4:50 pm

    It’s a flawed idea, drafted by Democrats and implemented by Obama’s incompetent politicos. How could it do anything BUT fail? It was in the cards from the start.

    The only surprising part is the speed and totality of the failure. It is failing in every respect – from costs and cancellations to narrowing networks to adverse age and health selection.

    But it is nonetheless doing great damage to our system, and we need to be ready with replacement reforms. It’s not so simple as repealing ObamaCare and heading to the After-party.

  8. Socialism: Organized Evil
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 6:10 pm

    The entire ideology of liberalism is little more than an ever-shifting mirage of illusions conjured up to exploit the gullible and the ignorant.

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    […] when the Democrats are afflicted by ginormous policy failures (persistent high unemployment and the disaster of ObamaCare) as well as unmistakable omens of impending political failure (the Wendy Davis meltdown, bad mojo […]

  10. Quartermaster
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 8:21 pm

    If RSM ever became Ambassador to Vanuatu, they’d probably stick him on a throne and worship him. I’m sure there are drawbacks to that, but can’t think of any right off hand.

    OTOH, he’d probably want a bunch of babes in skimpy Bikinis to carry his litter and his wife would then have to take official notice of the situation and deal with it.

  11. Wombat_socho
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 8:50 pm

    So the truth of someone’s statements is now determined by their political affiliation? What kind of Leninist BS is that?

  12. Wombat_socho
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 8:51 pm

    I think even Megan McArdle has become disillusioned with “liberaltarianism” by now. IIRC, she even did a post on the topic while she was at the Daily Beastweek.

  13. Zohydro
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 9:51 pm

    November is coming…

    Are we sure the speed of this “failure” isn’t scripted so the Left can come to the rescue with something like single payer free* healthcare just at the right time?

  14. DaveI
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 10:00 pm

    Megan McArdle is an employee who writes for money, and who’s written work is edited by folks who make money. She does as told. I usually see libertarian and conservative bloggers linking to her, but she never gives a reach around.

  15. DaveO
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 10:01 pm

    Not Davel but me.

  16. DaveO
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 10:13 pm

    Obamacare may not be doomed. There are many people who are still in love with Obama, with Prognazism, and with many illiberal progressive policies – folks of both parties. And, as we’ve seen many Americans become trapped by the Stockholme Syndrome since January 2009. There is no amount of abuse from Obama they don’t enjoy, no lie he says that they won’t accept as Gospel Truth, no visually observable personally witnessed affront they won’t shut their eyes for.
    Obamacare paved the way to permit Congress to call anything a tax. It empowered numbered Executive Branch agencies – and America has never reigned in the Civl Servants. Congress may change the name, but Obamacare is the new operating paradigm.

  17. Cube
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 10:29 pm

    We deserve better from our elected officials.

    I don’t think we do, actually. Collectively we were stupid enough to vote them another term.
    Let it burn.

  18. pabarge
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 10:42 pm

    work harder. You’ll get it.

  19. jakee308
    January 22nd, 2014 @ 11:42 pm

    Megan’s just whistling past the graveyard. Only Obamacare is a zombie and it ain’t dying anytime soon.

    See, neither Obama nor his minions and other clingers on really CARE if it works or not. That was never the point of this mess anyway. The point was to tie up huge amounts of money that they could shuffle around while we all try to figure what’s happening.

    It’s to create confusion, to stifle innovation, business, job growth and all sorts of other mischief. They set it’s activation time after the ’12 election on purpose; they would be in the 2nd (and hopefully last) term of Obama and they wouldn’t care what the results were. Who or what is going to hold them accountable?

    So what if it’s dead? It’s still moving. It still has to be reckoned with by business and the citizens.

    What’s going to be real interesting is how many will elect to have no insurance and wait to see how that works on their tax return. That’s when we’ll find out whether this is dead or not.

  20. Unix-Jedi
    January 23rd, 2014 @ 1:18 am

    I’ve been reading McArdle for .. 13? years now?

    Occasionally she’ll post something really well researched, with new insights. Very occasionally. More usually, she posts something that reflects her biases and background – NYC/DC – centric – and dismissive/ignorant of anything outside of it.

    Her comment section, prior to this gig, has been filled with gems, well worth reading.

    No, she’s not disillusioned with it – she thinks she’s a radical Libertarian. (Plus, that way she doesn’t have to worry about being a Republican)…

    Because her culture is so heavily tilted Left, she’s an outlier.

    But yes, then she voted for vocally, Obama, with the justification made about being more Libertarian….

    She’s not Libertarian, or libertarian, and that’s why I joke about that. Especially prior to Bloomberg and The Atlantic, it was a common theme, that she was a Libertarian, buuuuutttt….. (Especially with her oft-debunked in her comments Carbon Tax desires… You want a Carbon Tax, you’re not a l/Libertarian.)

  21. Wombat_socho
    January 23rd, 2014 @ 1:36 am

    There’s nothing to get. Francis Bacon settled this back in the 13th century. Ignoring somebody because they have a track record of lying or inaccuracy is not the same thing.

  22. Wombat_socho
    January 23rd, 2014 @ 1:37 am

    That’s certainly one of the things people have been speculating about this disaster, supported by comments various Democrats have made to their allies.

  23. Wombat_socho
    January 23rd, 2014 @ 1:38 am

    Especially since the IRS can’t take their usual collection actions if all you owe is the Obamacare tax – though I suppose this too will be modified by Presidential fiat.

  24. Adjoran
    January 23rd, 2014 @ 1:58 am

    I understand the fear, but it relies upon the public being willing, having seen the entire botch this gang has made of a website and arranging insurance, to entrust the same incompetents with running the entire health care system. I see no evidence of that happening outside the far left which always wanted single payer anyway.

  25. McGehee
    January 23rd, 2014 @ 10:34 am

    There is something to be said for what ISTR was referred to as “reluctant testimony” — a statement that goes against what would normally be expected from the person saying it.

    If an Obama voter is now saying that Obamacare is doomed, that would carry more weight with undecideds than hearing it from those of us who argued (and voted) against Obama.

  26. McGehee
    January 23rd, 2014 @ 10:37 am

    (deleted by author)

  27. Quartermaster
    January 23rd, 2014 @ 11:12 am

    Liars are usually ignored because all they say is tainted. The person that is merely usually wrong with no intention of putting something over on people may just be right.
    Even if McArdle was a Zer0 voter, she’s right on this one.

  28. rambler
    January 23rd, 2014 @ 1:18 pm

    I’m tired of suffering the consequences of the poor choices made by both parties who constantly run scum for candidates and the public who believe the lies those candidates tell to get elected.

  29. K-Bob
    January 24th, 2014 @ 1:09 am

    I totally agree that obamacare is doomed, and I for one welcome the new “let it collapse on its own” policy of the Republicans.

    They are 100% correct in this, and history backs them up.

    The Soviet Union did the same thing, and it destroyed them.

    Of course, it took sixty or seventy years, but still.

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