Too many questions…not enough answers
With the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Health Care Act, the doors have been opened upon too many questions that don’t have answers. While the Court defined the “penalty” as a tax which was something the Democrats and the President vehemently denied when the Act was passed, the Court did nothing to answer the thousands of unanswered questions about the Act itself. Of course, it is not their job to do so. Those questions should have been looked at and answered before the initial passage of the Act. Of course, that would mean that those who voted for it would have actually had to have read it.
The Act leads to many questions, the first of many being Who is going to pay for the healthcare? While every American should have access to healthcare, there is not an unending pot of money to pull from to fund those who do not pay their own way. How much of a tax will be imposed on those who do not opt in to the government plan? How much tax will be imposed to cover the shortfall in costs? What of those with private insurance? It is our belief that the costs will continue to rise as they have since President Obama came into the White House.
From what we have been able to determine so far (and we admit that we have not read the entire Act either) there are no methods of capping such things as malpractice costs and high settlements for lawsuits that raise the malpractice insurance prices. Where will the doctors and nurses come from to provide medical care to the millions more patients in the market? Their costs will continue to rise simply to practice medicine thereby potentially limiting the number of practitioners.
Who determines what healthcare is allowable? Many in the medical profession have been heard to say that a government bureaucrat will make the call on what treatment will be approved. What medical knowledge will these individuals have? What tests will be required to allow treatment to be given?
Will those with private insurance through their employer be able to drop that and pick up the government plan? What of employers who simply drop coverage because it’s cheaper to pay the fine (oops…tax) than to pay for healthcare coverage?
While the idea and the motivation may be heartfelt and positive, obviously those who constructed the plan and who are enforcing it have not thought through all of the things that are in it. The cause of the problem (high costs of private insurance due to medical malpractice and uncapped court settlements) should be addressed rather than simply adding a high priced band-aid to the wound. Piling billions more dollars of debt onto the American public is not the answer. We would encourage a repeals of the Act and a joint effort to address the real problems.