The eternal question with respect to socialist policies is why proponents think it’s so necessary to limit or prohibit other options? Yet that’s where we are, once again, with the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare).
Once the major health insurance provisions in Obamacare went into effect in 2014, including the government mandate to have coverage, many people without employer-provided health insurance began looking for other options. One of those options was “short-term insurance.”
Lots of insurers provided this very basic, no-frills coverage, usually bought by uninsured people who are between jobs or close to turning 65 and qualifying for Medicare. They want affordable, even if limited, coverage in the interim.
I turned to this market myself years ago in between jobs. It doesn’t cover preexisting conditions or most prescription medications, but it’s inexpensive and easy to enroll. And once the term ended, you could reenroll or choose another insurer.
President Obama was not happy that millions of Americans rejected Obamacare and turned to, or wanted to keep, these short-term policies, which were not “qualified coverage” under Obamacare. Democrats called short-term policies “junk” insurance—and still do.
So, the Obama administration issued an order limiting short-term policies to three months and prohibited people from reenrolling. If you wanted to have health insurance for any length of time, you had to have Obamacare—because the government knows best.
President Trump changed that. Not only did his tax reform legislation zero-out the penalty for not having qualified coverage, he also repealed Obama’s limits on short-term policies, allowing people to have a policy for up to a year, with the option of renewing it twice.
Well, President Biden is not happy about that change, and so he is proposing to repeal Trump’s repeal. Biden wants Obama’s three-month limit, with the option of renewing for one more month.
One of the primary reasons for reimposing the time limit may be to try and force up Obamacare’s anemic numbers before the next election.
One of the country’s best kept secrets is how few people actually enroll in the Obamacare exchanges. Proponents assured the public that Obamacare would be so popular it would largely eliminate the uninsured. They were wrong.
Between 2015 and 2021, Obamacare enrollment was in the 11 million to 12 million range, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That number jumped up to 14.5 million in 2022 and 16.3 million in 2023—because Democrats increased the taxpayer-provided subsidies. Yet, some 27.5 million were uninsured in 2021.
Getting more people in government-run health care has been the left’s goal for decades. Obamacare and the pandemic helped them move closer to their dream. Having people opt out of their government-run system implies it may not be what people want. Biden is determined to force more people back in—for their own good and his reelection.
July 11, 2023