Current system crazy?

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, October 5, 2016

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alling ObamaCare “the craziest thing in the world” and saying it “doesn’t make any sense” are the type of comments you might expect from presidential candidate Donald Trump or some other Republican.

But several news outlets reported this week how former President Bill Clinton made those comments about the current president’s signature accomplishment, at a campaign appearance in Michigan for wife Hillary.

The New York Post reported President Bill Clinton told those in Michigan Monday, “You’ve got the craziest system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care, and then the people who are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half … and it’s the craziest thing in the world.”

President Clinton also said

ObamaCare is killing “… small-business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies.”

Isn’t that what Republicans have been saying for years when they’ve called for rolling back or otherwise changing ObamaCare? Sure the program may be great for those whose insurance is paid for with government subsidies, so they’re not faced with paying the full premiums.

But if those who aren’t eligible for the subsidies can’t afford their coverage, are seeing premiums double and coverage cut in half, is that the universal health program that was promised?

Any good-intentioned program can add participants when someone else pays for them.

Consider calls to make college free for all who want to go. If some government program starts providing free or heavily subsidized tuition for low-income students and thousands more are able to attend college that will be ballyhooed as a great thing.

But what happens if like with ObamaCare those who don’t qualify for free tuition or big subsidies are forced to go into more debt because colleges raise their tuition, making it more expensive for those who have to pay their own way?

Is that fair? Is that the picture that was painted, the success that was promised?

Even Democrat and former President Bill Clinton says the current healthcare system is “the craziest thing in the world.”

Maybe after the election we’ll finally see this program modified to be a little less crazy for those who are suffering from the unintendended consequences of the lofty-sounding promises of ObamaCare.

 

WILL CHAPMAN 

PUBLISHER