Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The Obama consequences

A NY Times podcast says that the new Obama health care law is forcing millions of people to pay more for health insurance, and causing others to be threatened with lost coverage. The paper says that this is a great example of the law of unintended consequences" (at 25:50). It says that no one foresaw this.

No, everyone saw this. It is basic economics. You limit peoples' choices, and on average they will be worse off. They respond to incentives. The health care bill does not do anything to control costs. You cannot just say that you are requiring coverage, and have everyone be better off somehow.

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