1. Health Reform:
Where are we now?
Greater Washington
Association of Health Underwriters
January 11, 2012
Grace-Marie Turner
Galen Institute

2. Overwhelming majorities say ObamaCare will
increase taxes, the federal deficit, premiums,
health care costs, and decrease quality of care
Do you think the health care reform plan that Congress passed recently
will increase, decrease, or have no effect on each of the following:
Taxes
Federal Deficit
Health care Costs
Insurance Premiums
Health Care Quality
AM&A | Resurgent Republic 1st Anniversary Survey of Likely Voters | April 25-27, 2010

3. What the president will tell you
ObamaCare does
– “Free” preventive care
– Allowing “children” up to age 26 on
parent’s policies
– No annual or lifetime limits on coverage
– Pools for pre-existing condition policies
– $250 for seniors with high drug costs
– Insurance regulations and mandates

4. What ObamaCare does
◄Significant new federal control over health
insurance and medical practice
◄At least 159 new programs and agencies
◄Mandates on citizens, employers, & states
◄$552billion in new taxes and penalties
◄$575 billion from Medicare

6. People are confused
22% - Think the law has been repealed *
26% - Are unsure
Just over half (52%) know ObamaCare still stands
14% - Believe they have benefited from the law
17% - Already have been harmed
45% - Fear it will make the economy worse
56% - Favor full repeal of the law
Source: “Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – February 2011,” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, February 24,
2011, www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/8156.cfm.

7. ObamaCare Is Less Popular Than Ever
• Overall favorability -- 34%, an all-time low
• “Very favorable” support -- 12%
• People who think they personally will be
better off --18%
• The country as a whole will be better off -
- 28%
• Approval of the law among Democrats
dropped by 13% to only 52%
Source: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, Kaiser Family Foundation, October 2011, http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/8251.cfm.

8. Widespread pushback
Very real consequences
– Killing jobs, especially decimating the insurance broker community
– 40% of doctors plan to leave practice
Resistance from states
– Lawsuits to block individual mandate, resist Medicaid expansion
– Balking at setting up exchanges or otherwise complying
Impossible complexity
– CLASS Act collapse
– Enormous bureaucracy, benefit mandates, privacy issues
– 10,000 pages of regulations -- so far

9. Medical Practice Ownership
“When the Doctor Has a
Boss. More Physicians Are
Going to Work for Hospitals
Rather Than Hanging a
Shingle” By ANNA WILDE
MATHEWS. The Wall Street
Journal Nov. 8, 2010

10. “The mandate was a mistake”
“Democrats managed to get themselves the
worst possible result: a law that enflames the
opposition on the basis of overreaching
federal power but may not work in practice
because there is no real power behind it.
Whether or not the Court strikes it down,
the individual mandate has been one of
the most serious political and policy
mistakes of recent decades.”
Princeton Professor (and Obamacare advisor) Paul Starr, “The Health Care Mandate Really Was a Mistake,”
January 2, 2012. The New Republic. http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/99072/the-health-care-mandate-really-
was-mistake

11. Studies show law fails to meet goals
Health costs and health spending increase
One-third of businesses may drop insurance
Young people worried about high cost of
policies
Doctors concerned about Medicaid expansion
and fraying the safety net
Seniors are concerned about access to care
through Medicare and Medicare Advantage
Tens of millions remain uninsured

12. “If you like your health insurance…”
COVERAGE
51 to 80% of Americans will lose current
coverage, according to Obama admin. estimates
Up to 80 million will be forced to change policies
30-40 million insured will drop coverage
Child-only policies vanish in 19 states
35 million more will move from job-based
insurance to taxpayer-subsidized exchanges

13. What happened to cost controls?
Insurance premiums rising 9% to $15,000yr
(family employer plan)
Rick Foster: “False more so than true” that
law will lower costs for taxpayers
Actual cost of the law, $2.4 trillion – and
counting

14. 2010 Political Realities
Democratic pollster Pat Caddell said:
“The economy, as important as it was,
was not the decisive factor this election.
Health care was,” he said.
“It is...health care [that] killed them,”
Caddell said of the 63 defeated House
Democrats.
“The American people found this a crime
against democracy... they want it repealed,
and this issue is gonna go on and on.”

15. Changes are inevitable
Legislation: Defunding, dismantling
Regulatory: Strict congressional
oversight
Legal: Supreme Court decision in 2012
Political: Election referendum

16. What we know for sure
CHOICE Americans value innovation,
diversity and choice to accommodate
different needs of 300 million people
FOCUS ON THE PATIENT They want
doctors and patients, not government, to
make health care decisions
VALUE IN HEALTH SPENDING To realize
the promise of personalized medicine and
achieve overall cost saving, we must allow
more choice and competition

17. Other nations move toward change
 Consumerism
 Value private
enterprise and
competition
 Doctor/patient
relationship
 Decentralized
decision-making

18. The future?
The global move toward
consumerism is real, driven
by greater patient demand
for more control over
decisions.
Health overhaul is law and
will fundamentally change
the U.S. health sector. But I
believe it will be repealed by
Congress, struck down the
courts, or amended
significantly before 2014

19. Why ObamaCare Is Wrong for America
How does the new health care law
drive up costs?
Is your doctor really in charge of
your health care decisions?
Are your Constitutional rights
threatened?
Discover the law’s impact on your
life in a new book from four
nationally recognized health policy
experts
Published by Broadside Books,
an imprint of HarperCollins www.WrongForAmericaBook.com

20. Contact:
Grace-Marie Turner
Galen Institute
www.galen.org
(703) 299-8900
gracemarie@galen.org