During this weekend’s ‘Defending the American Dream Summit’ in Columbus, Ohio yours truly interviewed Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Avik Roy about Obamacare and Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion. Roy has been on the forefront when it comes to discussing healthcare and Obamacare. During the Summit, Roy sat on a panel called Obamacare called “Sick yet?” Obamacare 2.0 – An Update on How Obamacare and its Medicaid Expansion is Affecting You.
In the interview Roy explained that there will probably be a stall in the people who sign up for Obamacare seeing as the ‘low-hanging fruit’ (people who got it for free) have already signed up. The people who will have to pay more will not be signing up because they simply cannot afford it.
He also talked about Medicaid Expansion as being the driver behind the number of people signing up for insurance.New Hampshire ‘bought into’ Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion thanks to Republicans in the Senate, Democrats in the House and Governor Maggie Hassan, yet no one has ever explained how to pay for it.
Roy talks about the obvious way to pay for it – income taxes. There’s not going to be any other way to pay for it in New Hampshire. States will have to “fill in the blanks”, in other words, raise taxes somewhere. It’s a big problem and legislators will have to deal with it.
The problem now, according to Roy, is that the hospital lobby and other lobbyists who are getting money thanks to Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion will continue to lobby legislators to keep it. Once again, as Roy has reported before, he talks about the poor results with those who receive Medicaid.
When asked what would happen if Obamacare was repealed tomorrow, Roy stated it would depend what it was replaced with but the country would have lower taxes and the economy would grow. The reason our healthcare is so expensive is because the government has “messed it up.”
By having a dramatically smaller government this country could achieve more access to good healthcare and health insurance for all citizens. Allowing everyone to participate in a free market for healthcare without government interference, healthcare would be better quality, more patient oriented and more affordable.
Roy has been providing informative research and insight into healthcare and health insurance for many years. He consistently makes the case that getting government out of the way will not only make healthcare better but also more ‘available’ when driven by a truly free market. It’s no wonder he was on an Obamacare discussion panel at the ‘Defending the American Dream Summit.’
Watch the interview here:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Jm7ICijNI]
