Obamacare: Charity is now robbery

Obamacare: Charity is now robbery

By William R Thomas

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the Department of Health and Human Services is urging hospitals and pharmaceutical companies not to buy Obamacare benefits (aka “health insurance”) for poor individuals. Why? Because the internal contradictions of Obamacare have created a conflict of interest.

A hospital can sign poor, sick patients up for Obamacare and pay the premiums these people would otherwise have to pay themselves. The hospital would end up paying as little as $100 per month, or $1200 per year, once all the subsidies are taken into account. Then, those people's hospital bills will be paid by the insurance companies participating in the scheme—hospital bills worth much more than $1200—hospital bills that the patients themselves would never have paid.

The insurance companies can't refuse to accept these sick people because Obamacare mandates “guaranteed issue.” And they can't charge high rates for these sick people, because Obamacare mandates “community rating,” one price for all. But if the companies get mostly sick people signing up for Obamacare, they'll go bust unless the rates they charge get raised—a lot! This is one of the internal contradictions of Obama’s scheme.

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