The benefits of health care reform (eh, health insurance reform)

Of course there are benefits, of course  many Americans will get something out of this in the short term – not unlike cash for clunkers, rebates for new air conditioners, or $8,000 to buy a house.  None of that means the results are positive for all Americans or positive in the long term.

Expanding coverage for adult children helps those families, but according to DOL estimates, will raise family premiums for everyone by about 1% (on top of the 7-10% that will also reflect health care inflation and utilization next year and the years after).  Reinsurance for early retirees helps employers temporarily, but when it is gone employers will have another reason to drop this coverage entirely.  The change in taxation of the prescription drug rebate given to employers puts millions of retirees at risk.  Some employers are already looking for a strategy to lower benefits because they believe they may be at risk for the so-called Cadillac tax in 2018.  This means more out of pocket costs for millions of workers, many blue collar union members.

This is like giving a family a new credit card and making them happy for a month or two and then saying, sorry you are on your own for the payments.

By 2014 nobody will be happy with their “affordable” health insurance premiums and we will be looking for a new scapegoat. 

Somebody should think about the 265 million Americans who had health insurance before the law (including 70 million with employer self-insured benefits). Perhaps the millions of retirees who will lose their employer based prescription coverage should also get some consideration.  Their numbers by the way far exceed the potential number of newly enrolled adult children and these older Americans are more at financial risk from cost shifting.

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Discount oil for Americans, but food shortages in Caracas – somebody always pays

As the Administration keeps promoting of all the benefits contained in the law in the months before November elections, keep in mind that there is no free lunch.