ObamaCare’s Relentless Creation of Second-Class Citizens (5)

[Jim Lane]

64. (1) Sometimes, yes. (2) Anyway, that isn't the right question.

1. Someone who must buy insurance may find that paying the premiums uses up the money with which he or she could have obtained actual health care (as opposed to insurance), and that the insurance doesn't provide the health care because of high deductibles and co-pays. Such a person can't see a doctor about that persistent unexplained pain because, after paying the premium, he or she can't afford the co-pay for the doctor visit. Insurance like that amounts to catastrophic coverage. It provides better health care only to someone with a major medical problem.

2. The point I made about the ACA is that it will produce short-term improvement in health care for some people, but that it might still be bad in the long term. An issue raised by left-wing critics of ACA is that it further entrenches the role of the private, for-profit health insurance companies. Most DUers think single-payer would be best. One effect of ACA might be to make it harder to get from where we are now to single payer. It's possible that, in 2014, overall health care will be better than it would be without the ACA, but that in 2024 it will be worse. Obviously, this depends in part on one's assessment of when we're likely to get to single-payer despite ACA, versus when we would've gotten there without ACA.