After the last election this site argued that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was doomed to suffer major problems [1] . Well, here we are, for better or worse in the midst of the chaos.
It is now estimated that as many as 10-15 million Americans who had individual policies will see them cancelled by the end of 2013. It is also now very clear why President Obama was willing to give a one year waiver to business as it is estimated that perhaps as many as 90 million Americans covered by employer plans will be cancelled when the waivers expire at the end of 2014.
The prospect of some 100 million plus Americans “not being able to keep their insurance or doctor” is a far cry from the often repeated promise that if you “liked your plan you could keep it”. It was known from day one, in 2010, that this was not the case and embedded within the voluminous ACA’s 2,200 plus pages (and now 15,000 plus pages of regulations) was the nail in the coffin for all of these plans.
We now know that so-called grandfathered plans were sabotaged by the fact that almost any change in the policy made by a subscriber would void it’s grandfathered status and thus lead to cancellation.
On top of that, claims as to the cost savings over the next decade appear to be not only exaggerated, but bogus. Most now expect costs to surge and the ACA to add to the deficit and debt over the next decade.
What can be done? Well, at the least we need to begin the campaign to “fundamentally change” the ACA if not eliminate it. That would begin by expanding policy options, including Health Savings Accounts (HSA) account options in some form on all accounts to encourage individual responsibility and self-reliance.
The “other shoe” that is just beginning to fall is the number of physicians that will refuse ACA insurance and the number that will retire or limit their practices. This, along with the expansion of Medicaid and ACA policies will flood the market and create extensive waiting times and ques for services.
The downward spiral of government intervention in healthcare has begun. We can only hope to make changes early enough to prevent total collapse, which is the goal of many on the left, so that their much cherished single payer (read government-run and controlled) health system can be forced on the public.
Health care reform law goes forward, but problems loom