A reader writes:
I don't care for Obamacare--neither the bill nor the process that passed it. I doubt the intended goals will be achieved and I believe the unintended consequences will be manifold. For example, we will quickly see the development of a two-tiered health care system. The wealthy and the best doctors that serve them will opt out of the current system in an acceleration of an existing trends. The remaining doctors will paid less to do more. The wealthy will be paying more out of pocket--that is money that is otherwise consumption or investment. I mostly fear that medical innovation will slow when the current generation of overachieving doctors retire. I believe few if any in Washington understand the role the US health care sector plays in developing best practices for procedures and care.
I could go on for some length about changes in consumption, jobs, health care quality, and even politics that will arise as the bill becomes law and is implemented. But I wanted to take a moment to ask a question: because the bill raises revenues before it spends them could this lead to a perverse situation that deficits actually decline in the next two years faster than expected and thereby weaken the will to repeal the law in a few years time? Perhaps the accounting gimmickry--mismatch revenues and expenses to play games with CBO analysis--will also have an effect on inuring the country to its more pernicious changes.
