Source: ONE News Now
Even though President Obama says his signature healthcare law is “here to stay,” one policy analyst says it still has flaws.
The president’s remarks about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act staying put came after Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling upholding federal subsidies for people signing up for health insurance on the federal exchange. In the weeks leading up to the ruling, the president went so far as to say that the case should never have been before the Court, that the “law is working” and “does not need fixing.”
Devon Herrick, Ph.D. is a senior fellow for the National Center for Policy Analysis. He says the healthcare law has flaws.
“ObamaCare has a lot of flaws, a lot of structural, fundamental flaws that have to be addressed. Nothing has changed,” says Herrick. “We still have to be involved, because it’s going to implode in years as costs rise. 2018 is when the ‘Cadillac tax’ kicks in. And by all indications, most health plans will be subject to it, if not by 2018, within a few years of that.”
OneNewsNow asked for examples of what Herrick calls “flaws” in the healthcare law.
“Our healthcare system is costly; but the [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)] included no cost-control mechanisms. Healthcare expenditures are rising at twice the growth in national income and medical prices are rising at three times the rate of inflation. Premiums in the state and federal health insurance exchanges are rising at double digits.”
Herrick went on to say that the subsidies in the exchange are “arbitrary” and will distort the labor market.
“Small employers are beginning to realize they will suffer no penalty for dropping employee health plans and shifting workers to the exchange,” he adds. “Large employers are beginning to realize they can structure the employee health plan in such a way that it’s unaffordable to many workers, who will go to the exchange.”