Panelists answered the following question: Should the federal government delay the rollout of the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act?
Richard Place: “If this were a new IPO they would have to pay you to buy it. No government entity should be allowed to use tax dollars as risk capital. This like Hollister trying to sell T Shirts.”
Nants Foley: “Congress needs to grow up and take care of business to avert this possible fiscal shutdown. Delaying the Affordable Care Act is pointless. Let’s roll it out and see how it looks.”
Jim West: “No. the Affordable Care Act is a mess, but not as big a mess as what we have in place today. The only reason for delaying the rollout is because we’re familiar with the current mess – even though it’s a worse health care delivery system that the Affordable Care Act.”
Marty Richman: “No, they should just stick it to the folks who fall under the individual mandate; someone has to be punished for poor legislation, bad estimates, incompetence, and someone has to pay for the special subsidy they gave Congress – why not the little guy? According to Forbes, the administration has failed to meet about one-third of the law’s deadlines, delayed Medicare cuts until after the election, delayed the employer mandate, delayed enforcement of key eligibility requirements, relied on the “honor system” for enrollment, and recently delayed the caps on out-of-pocket insurance costs. Well, that’s no reason to give the average Joe and Jane a break, it isn’t as if they were large political contributors.”
Ruth Erickson: “Yes, but we really should do away with “Obamacare” as it was completed behind closed doors and rushed through with no concept of how it would actually affect the American people.”
Mary Zanger: “No, the power and might of the U.S. government are now on our side. We can bring our shopping basket to the healthcare marketplace and shop. We can compare prices and the sizes of healthcare plans offered, and decide our needs before we buy. Health insurance providers are scrambling to look good and have already lowered premium prices! Yet there are more good deals. Our government adds relief to our basket in the form of financial coupons making us the winners.”
