Monday, June 08, 2015

The "before Obamacare cost shifting system" wouldn't work as well today

I happened to tune into a conservative radio talk show host, Eric Wattenberg, who felt that the pre Obama Care healthcare system was better than today. He believes that the system of having low income people with no insurance showing up for charity care at hospitals worked pretty well. Show up and get care without being able to pay and then have the hospital shift the cost onto its other users who have insurance. That was the old system. What this talk host doesn't realize is that more and more people don't have private insurance as the years go on. Private employers are less and less likely to provide insurance. Now days, there would be so many uninsured people that the old "cost shifting" system would be overwhelmed. It was never that good to begin with.

No comments: