ObamaCare — The Way of the Dodo | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary

ObamaCare — The Way of the Dodo | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary: 'Let's pick one of Congress's accounting frauds at random: the "sustainable growth rate" (SGR) formula.

This little gremlin cuts Medicare payments to physicians every year on January 1. Or it would, except every year these cuts have come due, Congress has postponed them. But so long as hundreds of billions of dollars of future cuts remain on the books, future deficits and debt appear that much smaller.

Everyone knows Congress is going to postpone those cuts when docs and seniors start complaining. But by pretending that it won't, Congress makes the federal government's finances look better. (The real genius of the SGR is that the cumulative effect of pushing all postponed cuts into future years both preserves the SGR's debt-concealing power and ensures that physicians will grow increasingly desperate to make campaign contributions with each passing year.)'

'When ObamaCare's first batch of mandates took effect in September 2010, carriers notified their customers how much premiums would be raised as a result of these mandates. One Connecticut insurer put the hidden ObamaCare tax in the range of 20-30 percent of premiums. Naturally, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius threatened carriers with bankruptcy if they continued furnishing cost estimates 21. The notifications stopped.'

'With many states balking, Politico revealed that the law doesn't actually provide any funding for HHS to create exchanges 23. And there is exactly zero chance of any such funding emerging from the GOP House.'

'If the Obama administration provides unauthorized premium assistance through federally created exchanges, then some of those subsidies will, under the law's employer mandate, trigger penalties against employers. Employers would then have standing to challenge the unauthorized subsidies in court 25. In states that decline to create exchanges, those lawsuits could scuttle not only the unauthorized premium assistance but also the employer mandate.'

How can a law that is that long and was passed that quickly be expected to be consistent and logical?