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Obamacare Closes Private Health Care Market in DC
- Details
- Wednesday, 17 October 2012 13:02
- Written by Cliff Levine
President Obama infamously said that if we like our health care plan, we can keep it under Obamacare. As it turns out, the president likely never read the bill that was rammed into law to understand the minor details that fundamentally transform America's health care system. In Obama's mind, any bill that turns the control of health care over to the government is a good one. In Washington, D.C., small business owners are finding out the hard way, as the District has imposed a radical approach that eliminates private options.
The District of Columbia had three options to consider in order to comply with Obamacare:
- DC must establish their own health insurance exchange,
- DC could combine with another regional exchange, or
- Have the federal government set up an exchange for them.
The District opted for option #3, per the Washington Post. Since liberalism generates the exact opposite of its stated intent, small business owners with fewer than 50 employees will be forced to purchase health insurance from the government run exchange, as private options will be eliminated. But remember, we were told that if we like our health care plan, we can keep it! The intent with Obamacare was to push towards a single payer, government run health care system by forcing private insurance out of the market.
The District has opted for the first option, and this month it moved ahead with a model unlike anything pursued by any state in the nation, with the exception of Vermont: On Oct. 3, the D.C. Health Exchange Authority’s executive board unanimously approved a plan that would abolish the marketplace as we know it for firms with 50 employees or fewer and force them to obtain health insurance for their workers from the government-run exchange. Companies and associations with 100 employees or fewer would have to do so by 2016.
What will this mean for small and medium-size D.C. employers? While it’s too soon to know all the impacts, it’s certain to curtail choice. If you manage a small organization, as I did for 31 years at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and you’re happy with your current insurer and insurance — too bad. You must switch to an untested, government-run system.
We can make some educated guesses about other likely effects of this decision, based on developments beginning to occur. First, our choices will be further curtailed as carriers move to standardized, cookie-cutter coverage in the government-run exchange. Health insurers are already moving to conform plan offerings to meet ACA requirements — a process that will eliminate many desirable consumer options.
We can also anticipate higher costs. The ACA contains many new cost drivers, aside from two new administrative costs associated with the D.C. plan: the annual operating cost of the exchange, plus carrier administrative costs for the new systems that insurers will have to build to participate. And don’t forget that these costs are separate from the ongoing expense of care itself, which continues to rise as well.
Small businesses simply cannot afford anything that adds to our financial burden in such challenging economic times. For some D.C. businesses, increased health insurance costs will mean the difference between staying in business and closing. I know our group struggles each year to provide quality benefits.
Small businesses are getting crippled by Obamacare. The alleged health care reform law is causing thousands of small businesses to sit on cash they'd normally invest because they're uncertain how the law is going to impact their business. We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars that aren't being invested in hiring new employees simply because small business owners are afraid of the true implications Obamacare and whether or not Obama will get a second term because of the stifling regulations he'll impose.
This empty suit of a president needs to be defeated.
Cliff Levine is a contributing editor for Habledash.