Wolf on Obama and Obamacare

Quoting from the Washington Time’s byline, “Dr. Milton R. Wolf is a board-certified diagnostic radiologist, medical director and cousin of President Obama. He blogs daily at miltonwolf.com.”  As an aside that must be dealt with, I do not care that he is a cousin to the president; it has nothing to do with his qualifications to write on healthcare reform.  His medical degree does. 

Section 2711 of the Public Health Service Act prohibits insurers from establishing annual or lifetime limits of benefits for any insured person or group.  In his Washington Times Op-ed, Wolf finds three problems with our nation’s recent healthcare reform based on the 733 exemptions to section of the act, political corruption, the implicit acknowledgement that healthcare reform increases healthcare costs, and lack of transparency.

Wolf views the granting of exemptions to several cities, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, businesses and unions including the Service Employees International Union as evidence of corruption.  Without additional evidence, I not only don’t see fire, I don’t even see smoke.  There were 733 exemptions granted.  Perhaps there were 733 applications.  Political donations are reported.  It would not be difficult to statistical estimate the probability of receiving an exemption for those making donations to the Obama campaign and comparing it to the probability of receiving an exemption for those making donations to the McCain campaign.  Until I see more rigorous evidence, I will not consider the allegation of corruption.

The other charges are more difficult to dismiss.  By prohibiting insurers from limiting coverage the cost the amount of claims paid must stay the same or increase.  They will only stay the same if the caps on coverage were set so high that they were never reached.  I believe that this hit low wage earners hardest.  Suppose your job is worth $10.00 per hour to your employer and that you receive this wage in the form of wages at $7.25 per hour and a healthcare benefit valued at $2.75 per hour.  If the cost of healthcare now rises to $3.50 per hour, the employer will either cancel the policy or fire the worker because the cost of the wages and benefits exceed the value of the job.

At best, the  lack of transparency is bad government.  I don’t know what the legal requirements of transparency are, and without additional information, I assume that the administration meets them.  Wolf writes that more than 500 waivers were granted in December but not reported until after the State of the Union.  That is not a high level of transparency from an administration promising new levels of openness.