Comments on: Notes from a Health Care Implementation Discussion

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 04:08:07 +0000

One of the most concerning things I’ve heard is the renewed push for single payer:

http://theanonymouscommentator.blogspot.com/2013/11/why-i-dont-like-single-payer.html

By: drycreekboy

drycreekboy — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 15:58:50 +0000

It’s hard to repeal, or even just adjust, a troubled government program?

Gee, that’s never happened before.

By: Andrew_M_Garland

Andrew_M_Garland — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 07:27:47 +0000

Romney/Obama Care Democrat Timothy Cahill was Massachusetts' State Treasurer. He said on 3/16/10 (Cato @ Liberty): === === [edited] Implementing the MA health insurance reform nationwide will threaten to wipe out the American economy within four years. Our experiment has nearly bankrupted Massachusetts. Only federal aid is sustaining our law. We’re being propped up so that Obama can drive a similar plan through Congress. === ===

By: Arnold Kling

Arnold Kling — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 23:38:31 +0000

repeal would be embarrassing. They have looked into price controls for health care providers, but I am not sure where that stands.

By: Arnold Kling

Arnold Kling — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 23:36:17 +0000

Obamacare was not necessarily the right thing to build, either.

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 23:30:21 +0000

“if Obamacare had been a private-sector start-up, its odds of success would have been less than one in a thousand.”

Since start-ups are often failures because they built the ‘wrong’ thing, not because they built something that didn’t work, this isn’t a great comparison.

This is kind of a nit, because I think you (Arnold) know this, and maybe said this, but just gave us a quick summary in your post.

By: Stan

Stan — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:28:35 +0000

So why doesn’t Massachusetts repeal the program?

By: Arnold Kling

Arnold Kling — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 17:24:36 +0000

What I wrote about Massachusetts was that it would cost much more than forecast. That turns out to be true. You can make a program popular with recipients by throwing money at them. The trick is to try to cover your tracks with taxpayers.

By: Stan

Stan — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 16:25:28 +0000

During the health care debate I read that if the Affordable Care Act passed employers would cut hours to avoid the employer mandate, young people wouldn’t sign up for health insurance, and, paradoxically, the law would cause a massive shortage of health care providers. I read the same stuff about the Massachusetts health plan, often written by the same people. If any of the dreadful things they predicted had come to pass I think I would have heard about it. They didn’t. So, to repeat, I think that when the dust settles the ACA will be as popular nationally as its Massachusetts counterpart is locally. I also think conservatives ought to consider looking at the real world rather repeating rote phrases cribbed from SS Friedman and Rand.

By: R Richard Schweitzer

R Richard Schweitzer — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 15:10:12 +0000

Obama seems to be adapting Atlas Shrugged for the 21st century.”

The people will not act, the insurers will withdraw and not act and the legislative branch will not act.