ObamaCare, Small Business, and  Costs of Broken Promises and Bad Outcomes

The best laid schemes o’ mice and men

Gang aft a-gley.

Robert Burns (1759-1796)

The Obama administration  just announced,

“We are estimating that 65 percent of small firms are expected to experience increases in their premium rates while the remaining 35 percent are anticipated to have reductions.”

This is just the latest in a series of 9 disappointing outcomes and broken promises  that the 4 year-old Affordable Care Act  (ACA)has produced.

 First 8 Dissappointments

The first 8 disappointments were:

1.        The outcome of increased premiums and deductibles  for many  American  middle class families.

2.      The outcome of decreased access to care for many Americans,  with more plans being cancelled than people signing  up for ACA  plans.

4.       The promise  that the ACA will not cost the middle class “one thin dime” and will not increase the national deficit,

5.      The promise  that Medicare “will not be touched.”

6.      The promise that you could keep your doctor.

7.      The  promise that you could go to the hospital of your choice.

8.     The  promise that you could keep your health plan.

9.      The knowledge that these broken promises were known before hand and were implicit in the text of the law.

Lessons To Be Learned

What are the lessons to be learned here?

Here is my list.

·         The noblest of  well-intended plans can go awry.  I have no doubt that the ambition of the ACA was to provide universal coverage for all Americans.

·         When a government requires a 2700 page document to explain the implementation of a plan, that plan is too complicated.

·         Introducing a plan without bipartisan support invites  partisanship and  political dissent.

·         Delaying  implementation of a plan for 4 years invites skepticism and controversy.

·         Computer algorithms cannot launch, control, and monitor  any plan as vast and complicated as  the ACA.

·         Any plan impinging on  the freedom of individuals to make health care choices is destined for trouble.

·         The business of government, which depends on using other people’s money,  is not necessarily the same as the business of business, which is using your own money.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs  power the prosperity of America: disappoint them,  depend on rhetoric rather than reality, and you are headed for trouble.

Tweet:   The Obama administration and the Affordable Care Act has failed to deliver on its promises and outcomes.