The government shutdown appears to be ending, but why did it happen in the first place? On October 13, I published a post entitled Schumer’s Government Shutdown. In that post, I stated four reasons for the shutdown:

• Protecting healthcare for illegal immigrants
• Protecting expanding Medicaid eligibility
• Promoting socialized medicine
• Protecting Chuck Schumer’s political future

At this point, it appears all of these objectives will fail. The Democrats were unable to get concessions on any of the above goals and Chuck Schumer’s political future looks grim. But the main talking point that seems to be on the lips of Democrats is their failure to make permanent the ObamaCare subsidies that are slated to expire on December 31.

These subsidies were only supposed to be temporary, enacted to help struggling families cope with the Covid pandemic which is long since over. Although Democrats knew they were temporary, they now insist they be made permanent. This issue will continue to be debated long after the government reopens.

What are the flaws of ObamaCare that continue to require government assistance?

ObamaCare was passed by Congress in 2010 without a single Republican vote. Numerous promises were made by President Obama about how it would lower healthcare insurance costs and preserve choice of physicians. All these promises have been broken. The costs of ObamaCare continue to rise, which is why Democrats want the government to pick up the tab rather than the people. But throwing good money after bad is never a good idea. What is needed is healthcare reform, not more government subsidies.

The first thing wrong with ObamaCare is the requirement that all plans must provide “essential minimum benefits.” In a one-size-fits-all debacle, all ObamaCare premiums must provide things like free mammograms and free prostate exams to everyone. In other words, men are paying for women to have mammograms and women are paying for men to have prostate exams. This unnecessarily raises the cost of everyone’s premiums.

Second, ObamaCare has a feature called “medical-loss ratio” that obliges insurers to spend 80% of premiums on claims, which in practice is a profit cap that has driven industry consolidation. Fewer insurers means less competition which means higher premiums. The rich insurance companies get richer and the poorer ones go out of business.

Third, ObamaCare will not allow you to tailor your insurance plan to your specific needs. If you only want minimal coverage because you’re healthy, you still have to pay for a plan that covers everything. If you only want coverage for a limited time, because you may be covered by another plan, you still have to pay for a full year.

Fourth, ObamaCare encourages Americans to stop working. In a recent social-media post from Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, she complained if Republicans don’t extend the turbocharged subsidies, she warned, “early retirees like Bill & Shelly will see their health insurance premiums increase nearly 300%—from $442 to $1,700.” This is a tacit admission that ObamaCare encourages Americans to stop working. The Biden subsidies turbocharged that incentive by making subsidies larger and available even to those with income above 400% of the poverty line. Do taxpayers – many of whom pay for their own coverage at work – want to underwrite baby boomer early retirement?

The Wall Street Journal editorial board says, “ObamaCare passed 15 years ago, and it’s still a product few deem worth buying unless they’re protected from the cost. The political and media ground have changed in the past 10 years, and an underappreciated question of the shutdown is whether the GOP will re-enter the debate on healthcare—and go on offense on ObamaCare’s failures.”

The Democrats will fight this because they fight everything President Trump does, but also because this is their legacy legislation intended to push the country toward total government control of healthcare – socialized medicine. But just as socialized government leads to loss of freedom, so does socialized medicine. In every country where it has been tried it has led to limited access to healthcare, rationing of healthcare, and complete denial of healthcare to the infirm, elderly, and disabled. That’s not what Americans want or deserve.