tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10702621.post1492465611304082349..comments2023-07-08T19:45:01.781-12:00Comments on Thinking The Lions: Obamacare fixed everything nothing to see here move alongBrianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01616494058636881575noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10702621.post-54783809880516508492016-10-06T11:34:23.575-12:002016-10-06T11:34:23.575-12:00Well, I want to respond more to this, but I haven&...Well, I want to respond more to this, but I haven't had time, and it doesn't look like I will get time while I'm still remembering what I want to say.<br />Oh, well...<br />I don't disagree with you.<br />Which is not to say I completely agree, either.<br /><br />I do think, though, that we are due for a new revolution.<br />You should read 'The Fourth Turning.' I bet you would like it.Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10702621.post-67560561244034915522016-10-05T08:49:03.044-12:002016-10-05T08:49:03.044-12:00Minimum wage is a more complicated thing. But with...Minimum wage is a more complicated thing. But with Obamacare, the problem lies in the fact that there is nothing preventing that kind of costly abusive behavior -- the same way there is no way to prevent the kind of costly abusive behavior colleges are engaging in. There are no price controls on medical procedures and no laws regarding how much the deductibles or copays can be. In most cases people still do not have the right to shop for insurance: you generally cannot go buy your own insurance unless your employer doesn't offer it (and if you were to opt out of employer-provided coverage and buy your own, you will likely NOT be paid the money to cover it, because the employer pays a base premium and will not give you a raise.)<br /><br />One problem, then, is that there is no low-cost alternative for people. They have to have insurance, which means getting it through their employer. In that sense there is a principal-agent problem: the person paying for the services is not the one getting the services, so prices are disconnected.<br /><br />If people could opt out of the private system, the way they can opt out of private schools, by taking advantage of a public system, that would remove Medicare/Medicaid from the private-funding problem (those are huge profit centers for insurers) and would provide some competition with private providers. This hasn't worked well in education at the higher-ed level because student loans change the market, but it works fairly well in public education at the K-12 level, where the average cost of private high school is $13,030 per year; that's roughly comparable to the share of property taxes that goes to funding high schools in affluent communities. There are no guaranteed student loans for private high school or elementary school, so people have to make a decision on whether the education is worth it.<br /><br />As for minimum wage, having a minimum wage applicable to all workers and all jobs is foolish. There's no reason a 17-year-old should be paid the same as a 35-year-old, and no reason that line cooks are paid the same minimum as factory workers. Minimum wage laws should only be applicable to adults who are not living with someone that pays most of their expenses; and should only be applicable to people who work more than 1/2 time each week. There should also be the ability to apply for an exemption from minimum wage, based on market conditions.<br /><br />But beyond that, you're right that in most cases prices would go up, because companies won't take less profit. There may not be that kind of price elasticity in many markets, though, in which case you would probably expect total jobs to go down or some companies to go out of business.<br /><br />There's no perfect solution to any complex economic problem, but the Obamacare model isn't a very good one. I thought it would be better, but in the end I think we'd have been better off not passing it, as it removed any incentive to further work on the problem. Brianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01616494058636881575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10702621.post-3322613389782283212016-10-05T06:23:56.555-12:002016-10-05T06:23:56.555-12:00I don't think it's fair to blame that on O...I don't think it's fair to blame that on Obamacare. Obamacare is the first step toward a single-payer system. It's just that, as should have been expected, companies are taking advantage of Obamacare to raise prices and employers are using it as an excuse to raise deductibles. Neither of these things are the fault of Obamacare.<br />AND, because the Republicans spent their time doom and glooming it, they made everyone expect the prices to go up, so, when they did, people blame Obamacare when it's human greed that's actually doing it.<br /><br />The same thing will happen when we raise the national minimum wage. Prices everywhere will go up, not because they should or need to but because employers will not want to give up any of their profits to pay their employees a living wage. So should we not raise the minimum wage because of that? That's what the Republicans are saying. But they are just providing the future excuse for corporations to raise prices.Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.com