Posted on 03/11/2011 2:44:01 PM PST by Martin_Schmidt
The Wall Street Journal has published a new op-ed that argues against the prevailing theory that the U.S health care system pre-Affordable Care Act involved a lot of cost-shifting. Essentially, regular citizens had to pay more for their health care to cover the cost of caring for the uninsured and broke. ObamaCare was supposed to fix this problem via the individual mandate.
Writers John F. Cogan, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel Kessler (all university professors) argue that this idea, the foundation that ObamaCare is built on, is fundamentally wrong.
“Our review of the research has found that there is no credible evidence of a cost shift of any substantial consequence, either within state boundaries or across state lines,” say the writers. “Moreover, the new law will likely generate more cost shifting—the opposite of what its supporters would have us believe.”
The writers cite a study conducted by George Mason University Prof. Jack Hadley and John Holahan, Teresa Coughlin and Dawn Miller of the Urban Institute, and published in the journal Health Affairs in 2008. In the study, researchers found that “cost-shifting” caused the premiums of private insurance plans to only shift a negligible amount.
(Excerpt) Read more at multistatelawsuit.com ...
The Wall Street Journal has published a new op-ed that argues against the prevailing theory that the U.S health care system pre-Affordable Care Act involved a lot of cost-shifting. Essentially, regular citizens had to pay more for their health care to cover the cost of caring for the uninsured and broke....
Writers John F. Cogan, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel Kessler (all university professors) argue that this idea, is fundamentally wrong.
“Our review of the research has found that there is no credible evidence of a cost shift of any substantial consequence...
I have serious concerns about the research. For example:
* Several hospitals in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles have closed due to the cost of unreimbursed care for illegal immigrants.
* A fully reconditioned OB unit of a hospital in TN was closed due to the costs of unreimbursed care for births to illegal immigrants.
These are the ones I know off of the top of my head. Hospitals near the border between California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas experience the same problems.
How were these factored into the study?
Smells like a whitewash.
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