I am weary of the partisan diatribes over the Affordable Care Act. The ACA is a first step toward socialized medicine. Perhaps it is a third or fourth step if Medicare and Medicaid are included.
One example is the ACA placing restrictions on coverage so that everybody has essentially the same coverage. Add goals for a single-payer system, penalties for companies and unions offering “Cadillac coverage,” and individual penalties for failure to sign up — and you have a socialized system.
Employers can and have canceled health insurance coverage for all employees. Insurance premium cost savings increase profits unless employees receive some or all of the savings to offset their new costs. The ACA adversely affects unions offering “Cadillac” coverage. They can reduce premiums to avoid penalties but since they are primarily self-insured, their trust funds diminish until they have to get out of health insurance, leaving the government to fill the gap. Both employers and unions lose health insurance as a benefit to tout when recruiting new employees or union members.
Let’s call the ACA what it is and go from there. It’s time for reasonable people to step up and figure out how to make it work.
