Health Reform without the Vision Thing
June 18, 2015
A group of Republican scholars (all of whom I believe are associated with the presidency of Bush 41) have weighed in on how Congress should respond if the Supreme Court declares that the federal ObamaCare tax credits are illegal in 34 states.
It is called a “market-based” contingency plan, although that stretches the term “market” beyond normal recognition. For at least two decades now, both Republicans and Democrats have fully endorsed the idea of managed competition. It’s hard to find any dissenters other than yours truly and a few of my colleagues.
Under managed competition, health plans must be community rated. Their premiums cannot reflect the expected health costs of potential enrollees. That means that no one—no buyer and no seller—ever faces a real price for health insurance. And that produces perverse incentives, which I have described here.
