Saturday, January 21, 2012

Pipes and Scherz: Rejecting Health Insurance Exchange

In the 12/29/2011 Charleston Post and Courier, Sally Pipes (Pacific Research Institute) and Dr. Hal Scherz (Docs4PatientCare.org) discuss "Rejecting health-care exchanges".

They note:
Obamacare instructs states to set up health insurance exchanges where consumers and small businesses can look for coverage starting in 2014. The exchanges would effectively put health insurance -- and the delivery of care -- under the control of the feds, who would dictate what policies would look like and how doctors would treat patients with exchange-provided coverage.

The feds have further stipulated that people can only access billions of dollars in tax credits and subsidies earmarked for the purchase of policies by shopping in the state-run marketplaces.
Pipes and Scherz explain how states can fight back against ObamaCare by choosing not to create such exchanges:
If a state refuses to set up its own exchange, Obamacare allows the federal government to come into the state and set one up.

But here's the rub. The text of the law stipulates that only state-based exchanges -- not federally run ones -- may distribute credits and subsidies.

Without the federal cash, consumers won't patronize the government-run exchanges -- particularly with all the cost-inflating mandates they impose on insurers who wish to participate.
Some states have already rejected the role of abetting the federal government in imposing ObamaCare on unwilling residents. Let's hope more follow suit.

(Read the full text of "Rejecting health-care exchanges".)