Five myths cleared up concerning the Affordable Care Act.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

OBAMACARE IS A JOB-KILLER. 

Some of the job-killer scare stories are based on a deliberate misreading of a Congressional Budget Office report that estimated the law would “reduce the amount of labor used in the economy” by about 800,000 jobs. Sounds like a job-killer, right? Not if you read what the C.B.O. actually wrote. While some low-wage jobs might be lost, the C.B.O. number mainly refers to workers who — being no longer so dependent on employers for their health-care safety net — may choose to retire earlier or work part time. Those jobs would then be open for others who need them. 

Ultimately the Affordable Care Act could be a tonic for the economy. It aims to slow the raging growth of health care costs by, among other things, using the government’s Medicare leverage to move doctors away from exorbitant fee-for-service medicine, with its incentive to pile on unnecessary procedures. 

OBAMACARE IS A FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF HEALTH INSURANCE. 

Let’s be blunt. The word for that is “lie.” The main thing the law does is deliver 30 million new customers to the private insurance industry. Indeed, a significant portion of the unhappiness with Obamacare comes from liberals who believe it is not nearly federal enough: that the menu of insurance choices should have included a robust public option, or that Medicare should have been expanded into a form of universal coverage. 

THE UNFETTERED MARKETPLACE IS A BETTER SOLUTION. 

To the extent there is a profound difference of principle anywhere in this debate, it lies here. Conservatives contend that if you give consumers a voucher or a tax credit and set them loose in the marketplace they will do a better job than government at finding the services — schools, retirement portfolios, or in this case health insurance policies — that fit their needs. 

“Ten percent of the population accounts for 60 percent of the health outlays,” said (Health economist Karen) Davis. “They are the very sick, and they are not really in a position to make cost-conscious choices.” 


LEAVE IT TO THE STATES. THEY’LL FIX IT. 

The Republican alternative to Obamacare consists in large part of letting each state do its own thing. Presumably the best ideas will go viral. 

You’ve heard a lot about the Massachusetts law. You may not have heard about the seven other states that passed laws requiring insurers to offer coverage to all. They were dismal failures because they failed to mandate that everyone, including the young and healthy, buy in. Massachusetts — fairly progressive, relatively affluent, with an abundance of health providers — included a mandate and became the successful exception. To expand that program beyond Massachusetts required ... Barack Obama. 

OBAMACARE IS A LOSER. RUN AGAINST IT, RUN FROM IT, BUT FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE DON’T RUN ON IT. 

When Mitt Romney signed that Massachusetts law in 2006, the coverage kicked in almost immediately. Robert Blendon, a Harvard expert on health and public opinion, recalls the profusion of heartwarming stories about people who had depended on emergency rooms and charity but now, at last, had a regular relationship with a doctor. Romneycare was instantly popular in the state, and remains so, though it seems to have been disowned by its creator.

I provided just a brief synopsis of each point so if you want a fuller explanation of columnist  Bill Keller's points simply click the link at the top.

However this will hopefully provide you with a little more ammunition to use against those who keep insisting that Obamacare is the ruin of western civilization as we know it.