Dependency is the Measure of Success for Obamacare

On the surface, it’s quite puzzling that Democrats would celebrate the fact they signed up 7.1 million people for Obamacare.  They essentially took a number of people who were happy with their insurance and raised the cost to the point where they could no longer afford it themselves, engendering a need for a government subsidy.  Like many Americans, my family will lose our insurance later this year and will have to pay more for subpar coverage.

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As for those who had no previous insurance, most of them are being dumped into Medicaid and will be cemented in a permanent status of dependency with limited access to quality care.

Hence, celebrating 7 million people reliant on Obamacare is like rejoicing over an arsonist who burned down millions of homes but created a bungalow of dingy shelters for people to seek refuge.  Would we measure the success of such an endeavor by the number of homes burned down and, in turn, by the number of people registered at the shelters?

Sadly, in the perverse world of liberalism, this is something to celebrate as a mission accomplished.  The end-game for liberals with all government interventions in private enterprise is to make the private sector unaffordable and unsustainable, thereby forcing as many people as possible into government dependency and barring the path towards upward mobility.  Given that healthcare is one of the most vital services and the largest sector of our economy, Obamacare is indeed the crowning achievement of this long-term goal and worthy of celebration among liberals.

This observation was lost on those who opposed the effort to defund Obamacare last year, arguing that the law would implode on its own.  At the time, many of us argued that although from a policy standpoint the law would be a disaster, that is exactly the point of Obamacare.  The law was designed to destroy the private insurance industry, and by extension the entire healthcare sector, and force people into a government-run program.  The website and the incompetence was something they could overcome on some level.  Consequently, Obamacare will not implode on its own – at least not before it implodes the private sector first.

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Additionally, there were those who argued that we must wait until 2017 to fight Obamacare.  But as we are seeing now, millions of people will be forced or enticed into joining Obamacare.  Even though the level of access to care and the quality of delivery will gradually deteriorate, it won’t be so apparent during the first year or two, especially if that is the only insurance individuals have.

There is no doubt that the administration will successfully throw millions of more Americans onto Obamacare by 2017.  Again, that is not a sign that Obamacare is working– as it surely is not – rather it is a measure of how successful the law’s deleterious effects on private insurance have impelled people to sign up as their only recourse of seeking coverage.  Once there are tens of millions reliant on Obamacare there is no way we could repeal the law.

This is why conservatives must keep up the pressure.  The media is trying to conflate Obamacare’s success at creating proverbial homeless shelters with real policy success so that Republicans stay away from the issue.  But if we give up on any effort to disrupt implementation now, much of the law will be immutable.

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