Newly ascendant House Republicans are expected this week to repeal the health care overhaul enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama last March. But given that Democrats control the Senate and White House, this amounts to a symbolic repudiation of the law by the GOP.
After this is done, we hope Republicans and Democrats alike take a more substantive course and address basic problems in the sweeping legislation. Not all of the criticism the law faces comes from anti-government ideologues. Two key examples:
— The combination of small fines for individuals for not having health insurance along with guarantees that no one can be denied insurance will lead to people gaming the system by only buying insurance when they are sick, as has happened in Massachusetts, whose law was a model for the federal health overhaul.
— The combination of small fines for companies not providing required health insurance along with the availability of state-run health exchanges offering subsidized insurance to their employees will lead to fewer employers offering insurance, as laid out in long-term corporate strategy memos obtained last spring by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
So both uninsured individuals and businesses mandated to provide coverage have financial incentives to act in ways that increase costs that must be borne by the federal government — that is, taxpayers in general.
Even the health overhaul's biggest admirers need to admit that these are real problems that must be addressed. Congress, get to work.
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