On Monday, the Supreme Court delivered it’s most anticipated
ruling of the 2013-14 term with a 5-4 decision in Burwell
v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito outlined that the
Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) violated federal law by
compelling Hobby Lobby, a family-owned private corporation, to
cover certain forms of birth control in their employee health plans
that they felt caused abortions thereby violating their religious
principles. (You can read Reason’s analysis of the
decision here.)
Reaction to the decision was divisive and heated. The right
viewed it as a victory for religious freedom, while those on the
left paraded the ruling as another causality in the war on
women.
The highly controversial Hobby Lobby decision illustrates
another chapter in the sad saga of ObamaCare. From a horribly
botched rollout to the argument over contraception (and let’s not
forget
Pajama Boy), the implementation of ObamaCare has resulted in
devastating consequences for our health care system and public
discourse. The latest issue of Reason examines the
consequences of Obama’s health care reform legislation (online
edition can be found here).
And while it hasn’t been all good news, Nick Gillespie presents
us with “3 Ways to Make Obamacare Less Totally Horrible,” written
by Gillespie and produced by Joshua Swain. Original release date
was July 1, 2014 and the original writeup is below.
Obamacare is a truly epic mistake, but it’s also one that’s not
going away anytime soon.With that in mind, here are three ways to immediately make the
president’s signature legislative achievement better, cheaper, and
more cost-effective.1. Let anyone buy “catastrophic plan.”
As it stands, only people under 30 years of age and a few other
folks can buy cheap“catastrophic
plans” that cover few regular procedures but protect you
against very costly medical emergencies. Catastrophic plans are
much cheaper than the cheapest comprehensive bronze plans at
Healthcare.gov.One of the selling points of Obamacare was that it would let
people choose plans that fit their needs. If a catastrophic plan is
what you want, why not be allowed to buy one despite your age?2. Force insurers to compete across state
lines.Health insurance companies, in cahoots with state insurance
commissions, have carved up their territories like old-school mob
families.A true national market that would force insurers to compete
across state lines for customers on the basis of price and service.
A national market would expand consumer options and eventually lead
to new ways of doing business. It works in auto and home insurance
and would work with health insurance, too.3. Grow the supply of medical care
already.Obamacare increases the demand for medical care but does
virtually nothing to grow its supply.That’s a recipe for shortages and long wait times.
The quickest way to grow the supply of health care is to ditch
all sorts of barriers ranging from super-slow
FDA approval processes for new drugs and devices to
protectionist professional licensing to tightly restricted medical
school admissions.
Almost three dozen states give existing hospitals an
indirect say in whether new, competing hospitals can be built!Scrapping all of these rules and more would make health care
easier and cheaper to get.Obamacare is not just a dumb law but a deeply offensive
one. In a perfect world, it would be repealed and we’d
actually move toward a true free market in health care (even before
Obamacare, local, state, and federal governments were spending
nearly 50 cents of each buck spent on health care).But in the world we actually live in, Obamacare isn’t going away
any time soon. The least we can do in the meantime is make it
less horrible.About 2.30 minutes. Written by Nick Gillespie and produced by
Joshua Swain.Scroll below for downloadable versions. Subscribe to Reason TV’s
YouTube channel to receive automatic notifications when new
material goes live.
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