Megan McArdle, writing for the Atlantic, wades into the debate about whether the new health care law is driving health insurance rate increases.
She dismantles the argument made by one commentator who suggests that the fact small insurance pools and individual policies are experiencing the largest rate increases is evidence that something other than the new law is driving price hikes (there are many legitimate economic reasons why some insurance pools are affected differently than others by the new mandates).
My favorite part, though, is this paragraph when she gets into the fundamental absurdity of those who purport shock that the new law is leading to higher costs:
But the skepticism that PPACA has anything at all to do with increasing prices seems very odd to me. Did Kevin, or anyone else, really think that they could just add a bunch of new benefits for free? Health insurance companies have relatively thin profit margins, so where, exactly, did they think the money was coming from to provide all these extra services?
Indeed, this is at the core of why the American people were (and remain) so disgusted with this new health care law. It was blindingly obvious that proponents of the law were flat out lying about its effects: there is simply no way that you can cover millions more people, while lowering costs, and not sacrificing the quality of care or limiting access to care. It just doesn’t add up.
Is it possible that some don’t recognize this and believe that government bureaucrats can perform a loaves-and-fishes type miracle with the medical system? It’s hard to say. Regardless, Americans would be wise to vote out those who are either so dense or delusional as to not understand the fundamental problems with the new health care law.