Damn! Did the Pres Just Gut His Own Health Care Law asks Shikha Dalmia?

The president ordained yesterday that insurance companies don’t
after all have to cancel the “junk” policies that he had previously
insisted they had no business selling and Americans had no business
buying. Jonathan Adler at the Volokh Conspiracy offers some

very good reasons why the president’s remedy, meant to honor
his “if-you-like-your-plan-you-can-keep-your-plan” promise, might
be illegal unless Congress — not Obama’s regulators — changes the
Affordable Care Act. (Yet Obama has threatened to veto one such law
that just
passed the House.)

But the more serious problems for Obamacare will occur if the
president actually succeeds in restoring these cancelled promises,
notes Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia in the
Washington Examiner. This might well set in motion an
uncontrollable adverse selection death spiral that will likely put
the law in hospice by this time next year.

She notes:

Obamacare’s viability depends on its ability to herd the 15
million or so Americans getting “junk” coverage from the individual
market onto the Obamacare exchanges where they’d be forced to pay
more for benefits they don’t need. This would spread premiums
across a bigger population and keep coverage affordable. (At least
in theory.)…

But even if the administration fixes the exchange — a big
“if”– what incentive will these folks have to sign up if they can
keep their existing plans?

Go
here to read the whole thing.