Angry Bear wonders if, “Economists Idiots or Just Delusional?”
If reducing the value of the policies If held by those who are continuously employed, either by taxing them or forcing those people to move to a less comprehensive plan than their risk-aversion preferences, is going to “reduce costly distortions in U.S. health care,” the only possible conclusion is that total health care spending is going to get costlier on average.
Yes, you might argue this will reduce “distortion.” But you would have to be an idiot—or, apparently, Alan Auerbach (Strongly) or Austan Goolsbee—to believe that is a good thing.
Note that Goolsbee has been a senior economic advisor to Obama, and his predilection for so-called market efficiencies at the expense of the poor and powerless has been common knowledge for quite some time.
It does explain many of the policy shortcomings of the Obama animation.
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