The Real Problem With The ACA

Last month Lee Kamps wrote a piece about how bad the Republican alternative to the ACA was. Well, sort of. Actually, only the title and the first paragraph were about that. The rest was an attempt to defend the ACA. But there was a common thread to the piece. It was all far left talking points that, as usual, were nothing more than spin, innuendo, half-truths and lies.

In his first paragraph he named four organizations that had come out against the alternative to the ACA and claimed their being against it was absolute proof that it was a "real stinker of a bill." Spin. The truth is it proves just the opposite. You see, the real benefactors of the ACA were medical organizations and insurance companies whose profits skyrocketed. And that's who he used as his evidence. For example, he used the American Hospital Association. The entire purpose of the AHA is to advocate for hospitals and hospital profits have soared due to the ACA. The AHA would be remiss if they weren't against anything that might reduce hospital profits.

He also used AARP. The whole purpose of AARP is to sell insurance and nobody has benefited more from the ACA than insurance companies. AARP was originally formed by Leonard Davis as a way to sell insurance to seniors. (He was also the founder of the Colonial Penn Group of insurance companies.) AARP makes billions of dollars from insurance through their for-profit company and very little of that is used for the benefit of members of their non-profit organization. The last time their non-profit status was investigated a report was issued by two congressmen on the findings. It was titled BEHIND THE VEIL: The AARP America Doesn’t Know and it can be found on the internet with a search for that title. It's an interesting read.

In Kamps' second paragraph, he said there is no basis for my saying the ACA hurts 99% of Americans. Au contraire. According to the Census Bureau, there are currently about 324.9 million people in this country. According to CMS, the organization that oversees the ACA, there are 12.2 million people enrolled for 2017. Simple math says that only 3.8% of the population gained coverage and EVERYBODY is paying more. Next remove the people who are part of the 3.8% who didn't really benefit from the insurance. For example, people who bought Bronze policies because that's all they can afford. But if its all they can afford, they can't afford to use it due to the deductibles, which for Bronze averages $12,393 for a family in 2017. (For a more in-depth analysis go back to what I wrote in the January Observer.)

Of course, I was talking about people who bought insurance under the ACA. If you include all the medical and insurance professionals (like Mister Kamps) the number who benefited is undoubtedly higher.

Mister Kamps concluded by using some far left wing talking points about how every American benefited from ACA mandates. The truth is those mandates were in the vast majority of policies prior to the ACA. For example, he mentioned free annual physicals. Most people have had that in their policies for many years. Insurance companies are in business to make a profit and they aren't dumb. They understand that keeping people healthy or detecting an illness early reduces their costs. That's why they want you to get an annual physical. The first time I remember an insurance company paying for my physical was in 1969 and it was a requirement. Today many companies, mine included, are using cost sharing to motivate people to stay healthy. Mine, for example, sends me $50 when I get a physical. But typical of the far left, they pass a law that says you can have something you already have and then tell you how great they are for allowing you to have it.

But let's face facts. The argument about the ACA is really just a symptom of a much deeper problem. I don't like the ACA because it is a bad law that hurt more people than it helped. And I don't care how you cut it or how much spin, innuendo, half-truths and lies you use, that's just a simple fact. You can use an example of some individual it helped. You can say it helped all of the 3.8% of the population who bought polices under the ACA. You can fudge that number to 20% or 30% if you choose. It still hurt more people than it helped. But liberal elites like Mister Kamps and the people who are now running the DNC will argue with their dying breaths that the ACA is a great law whether it is or not because the law came from the radical left. To them, it's all about partisan politics, not what's right or wrong or good or bad. And that's the real problem with the ACA and every other political issue today.