Obamacare Exchanges Start Tuesday, Oct. 1. Here’s Why They’re Worth It
Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic: Obamacare Exchanges Start Tuesday, Oct. 1. Here’s Why They’re Worth It
But the question is not whether Obamacare has its downsides. It’s how those downsides compare to the upsides—and whether that balance is better than the world we have now.
To answer that question, it helps to think about the people’s whose struggles were the original impetus for reform. A few years ago, I wrote a book that described some of them. In upstate New York, a middle-class, fortysomething husband and father lost his job and then his insurance—and couldn’t find coverage even when he returned to work, because his new position was officially on a contract basis. His wife put off checkups, leading to a delayed diagnosis of breast cancer that took her life and left the family bankrupt. In central Florida, a realtor couldn’t find insurance because she had diabetes. She thought she lucked out when she found a decent policy willing to overlook her pre-existing condition. It turned out to be a fraudulent insurer, leaving her with five-digit medical bills. In Los Angeles, an uninsured security guard went partly blind because he couldn’t get treatment for his diabetes. Outside of Denver, the husband of a woman begged a hospital to keep his wife, who had severe mental illness, even though his insurance had run out. He lost the battle—and, shortly thereafter, she committed suicide.
They were extreme cases. They were also emblematic of a system that marginalized tens of millions and frustrated many millions more, a system that was bankrupting our society, and a system that was getting worse, not better, with time. Obamacare won’t solve these problems, but it will make them much better. Those who would take the law away owe the public more than complaints about what they don’t like. They need to explain why restoring the old system—the one that caused so much misery—is a better alternative. That’s a tough case to make.