We all knew that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the official name of Obamacare, was just the beginning. It set in motion a lifetime of amendments to expand coverage, benefits and subsidies. Well, Congressman Brad Ellsworth isn’t about to let the ink dry on the PPACA before he gets to work making it an even larger burden on the American taxpayer.
Congressman Ellsworth has introduced H.R. 5664, an amendment to Obamacare that allows people who are losing their COBRA coverage to access state high risk pools. For people who have lost their jobs, COBRA offers an option to buy into their group coverage for a period of time. It intends to bridge the gap between employment so individuals can maintain uninterrupted insurance coverage.
I’m sure Congressman Ellsworth’s well-intended effort is tied to an individual constituent, but the nation is going broke on an agenda of good intentions. The Congressman’s legislation simply extends coverage to people in the most expensive way possible.
State high risk insurance pools were created under Obamacare and required to be implemented 90 days after the passage of the PPACA. Most states, including Indiana, already have high risk pools, but Obamacare adds another one. The goal was to put in place a stopgap measure for the uninsurable before federal health reform takes effect in 2014. High risk pools cover those who cannot obtain insurance in the private market and don’t qualify for government services, many of whom have catastrophic health care conditions and associated costs. COBRA insurance is for anyone who can afford to continue coverage under their employer plan. These aren’t people with chronic diseases, they’re just people who want to continue their insurance coverage. Congressman Ellsworth’s plan puts two completely different groups of people together in the most expensive insurance coverage system we have.
State high risk pools are already underfunded, Obamacare appropriated only $5 billion to fund pools in all states through 2014. No one expects that money to last to 2012, which means Congress will have to step in and spend more to keep it going. Congressman Ellsworth’s effort pours hundreds of thousands if not millions of people into an underfunded system that isn’t designed to cover them.
Just to be clear, health care reform won’t do anything for the unemployed and uninsured in this situation after 2014… other than require that they purchase insurance subject to criminal penalty. If you happen to be poor enough, you’ll probably be subsidized or dumped into Medicaid. If you believe what no one believes, that health care reform will pay for itself, it is the constant effort to add onto it that will cause costs to soar beyond the naive political notion that we can insure an additional 30 million people for free.
