“If a mandate was the solution, we could try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody buy a house,” President Obama said in 2008, arguing against legally requiring individuals to buy health insurance.
A little over a year into his presidency, though, Barack Obama signed just such a mandate into law. That mandate became the center of his signature health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act.
The mandate was upheld by the Supreme Court, but Chief Justice John Roberts made clear that, while the Court found the mandate constitutional, it did not and cannot decide whether the mandate is good public policy.
As American citizens, it is our job to consider the consequences that come from the choices we make in elections. One consequence of the choice we make this presidential election year will be the impending enforcement of the ACA, which takes effect in 2014.
The ACA aims to increase health insurance coverage in the United States primarily by shifting health care costs from older Americans to younger Americans and from willing insurance purchasers to taxpayers. It does this by requiring all Americans to purchase a government-approved health plan, regardless of their age or health status, and by raising taxes on everything from medical devices to tanning beds.
To the extent that the health law reduces costs for some, it increases them for others, while rerouting a substantial amount of money through government programs. The law will increase government spending by more than a trillion dollars over the next 10 years.
That cost will be covered by the government, already sinking under the weight of existing entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
President Obama should have stuck to his original position on the health insurance mandate and pursued reforms to make health care more affordable. As the president went on to say in that same 2008 interview, “The reason they don’t have a house is they don’t have the money. And so our focus has been on reducing costs.”
Mitt Romney has a health care plan that really would focus on reducing costs. He has promised to start by repealing the ACA and then working on smarter reforms to spur choice and competition in the health care market. Those reforms include equalizing the tax treatment of health insurance benefits, creating a national market for health insurance by allowing plans to be sold across state lines, and finally reigning in frivolous lawsuits that are raising costs for every patient.
Romney’s goal is to give power back to states and individuals so they can decide on their needs instead of creating comprehensive universal health care without individual considerations. This will allow both state governments and consumers to have more flexibility with their plans.
This election gives voters a distinct choice between the government-driven approach President Obama has taken toward health care reform, embodied by the costly and intrusive ACA, and the patient-centered choice Gov. Romney has proposed.
The results of Romney’s health care reform plan will be a system with more choice, more competition and lower cost.