11/03/2010

How to stop Obamacare

The New England Journal of Medicine has this piece by a liberal at the Brookings Institute worrying about how to protect Obamacare.

Repeal of the ACA before 2013 is unlikely. Both houses of Congress would have to enact repeal legislation, which President Barack Obama would surely veto. Then, two thirds of both houses would have to vote to override that veto. After 2012, however, repeal could occur if Republicans win the White House and both houses of Congress and stick by their pledge.
A more serious possibility is that ACA opponents could deliver on another pledge: to cut off fund­ ing for implementation. Here is how such a process could work.
Customarily, substantive legis­ lation “authorizes” spending, but the funds to be spent must be separately “appropriated.” The ACA contains 64 specific authoriza­ tions to spend up to $105.6 billion and 51 general authorizations to spend “such sums as are neces­ sary” over the period between 2010 and 2019. None of these funds will flow, however, unless Congress enacts specific appro­ priation bills. In addition, section 1005 of the ACA appropriated $1 billion to support the cost of implementation in the Depart­ ment of Health and Human Services (DHHS). This sum is a small fraction of the $5 billion to $10 billion that the Congressional Budget Office estimates the fed­ eral government will require between 2010 and 2019 to im­ plement the ACA. The ACA ap­ propriated nothing for the Inter­ nal Revenue Service, which must collect the information needed to compute subsidies and pay them. The ACA also provides unlimited funding for grants to states to support the creation of health in­ surance exchanges (section 1311). But states will also incur sub­ stantially increased administrative costs to enroll millions of newly eligible Medicaid beneficiaries. Without large additional appropriations, implementation will be crippled.
If ACA opponents gain a ma­ jority in either house of Congress, they could not only withhold needed appropriations but also bar the use of whatever funds are appropriated for ACA imple­ mentation, including the imple­ mentation of the provisions re­ quiring individual people to buy insurance or businesses to offer it. They could bar the use of staff time for designing rules for implementation or for paying sub­ sidies to support the purchase of insurance. They could even bar the DHHS from writing or issu­ ing regulations or engaging in any other federal activity related to the creation of health insur­ ance exchanges, even though the ACA provides funds for the DHHS to make grants to the states to set up those exchanges.
That would set the stage for a high­stakes game of political “chicken.” The president could veto an appropriation bill containing such language. Congress could refuse to pass appropria­ tion bills without such language. . . .


My concern is that Obamacare is a disaster, but that Obama and Democrats will claim that it just didn't work because of this lack of funding. The program itself will then escape the disapproval that it deserves.

the effort to repeal the bill will not succeed, but the tactic of crippling imple­ mentation will. The nation would then be left with zombie legisla­ tion, a program that lives on but works badly . . .

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4 Comments:

Blogger John A said...

If Rs do not fund, they will be blamed for allowing the monster to die. If they do fund, the monster will devour us and the Rs will be blamed for not stopping it.

I know which I prefer, for the short term. Admittedly, I am not smart enough to come up with a way of selling it long-term.

11/04/2010 4:50 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

You people are blind. The US has some of the WORST health care in the world. The new plan is incrementally better... and you want us to go backwards???


STOP JUST SAYING "NO". IF YOU HAVE A PLAN...SAY IT. If you got NOTHING,l then get out of the way and let the Dems at least TRY to help the American people.

11/07/2010 2:07 PM  
Blogger John Lott said...

Sorry, makeroftoys, but you simply don't know what you are talking about. Americans take more risks with their health, but that is not something that you can hold health care responsible for. If you are going to get sick, you would much rather get sick in the US. Please read these links.

http://johnrlott.tripod.com/op-eds/FoxNewsHealthCareComp100509.html

http://johnrlott.tripod.com/op-eds/FoxNewsHealthCareMyth091609.html

http://johnrlott.tripod.com/op-eds/FoxNewsHealthCareTruth92309.html

11/07/2010 3:03 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

The democrap plan is a disaster, top to bottom. There are LOTS of known things that WILL work that were not done. This bill was NEVER about health care. It was always about destroying Health Insurance Companies for the benefit of a government takeover of Health Care. And the government doesnt do ANYTHING well. Citing Foxnews as a source does not convince leftists and liberals (even though they are usually right). And since MOST liberals are unemployed college kids and government employees, they are greedily standing by with their hands out.

3/07/2011 10:16 PM  

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