Obamacare: What you need to know now [podcast episode #11]




Eye to Eye: An Ayn Rand Institute Podcast show

Summary: We have all read about the rollout of Obamacare. It's been quite a roller coaster. While some are “only” facing skyrocketing premiums, others have also lost both their plans and doctors. How could this happen? And why? Are the problems that we are witnessing only the expected but temporary "growing pains" of a “noble” program? Or are they the logical outcome of Obamacare due to the very nature of the law? In this episode of the Ayn Rand Institute podcast Eye to Eye, Amanda Maxham (research associate at the Ayn Rand Institute) interviews Steve Simpson (director of legal studies at the Ayn Rand Institute) and Rituparna Basu (analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute), to obtain an essentialized analysis of the politics, economics and morality of Obamacare. Here are some highlights: Simpson explains why mass cancellations are the inevitable result of Obamacare’s insurance mandates. When the government forces insurance companies to cover more procedures—regardless of what an individual wants, needs or can afford—the old plans that offer more desirable coverage will simply have to go. From this perspective, millions of people losing their plans is “not a bug, but a feature” of Obamacare. Basu observes that government policies are to blame for the broken health care system. She also questions the underlying moral premise of Obamacare, namely that it is your duty to provide health care for your needy neighbor. The problems surrounding Obamacare are not the accidental outcome of a questionable technical implementation, but rather the necessary outcome of a questionable moral premise.  John Donges via Compfight