Our View: actions speak louder

To no surprise, Florida’s liberal media outlets are slamming and hammering  Gov. Rick Scott for “flip-flopping” on expanding Medicaid in Florida.  You might even call it bait and switch. 

Before the enactment of Obamacare, Scott opposed expanding Medicaid in Florida, essentially on the basis it was fiscally immoral — too costly, unaffordable and a bad system for Floridians. Then, as his gubernatorial re-election came about, he announced — tacitly, mind you — he would support expanding Medicaid. 

By taking that position, you could see the strategy: Attempt to mute the liberal media’s attacks on him while he campaigned against pro-government, “I-care-about-you” Charlie Crist.

And now, after being re-elected, Scott says he opposes Medicaid expansion.

As one longtime Republican pol told us: Unfortunately, it’s politics. “What would you rather have,” he asked, “a re-elected Republican Gov. Scott or Charlie Crist? You do what you have to do.”

That is exactly why so many Americans cannot stomach politics. Politicians say and do things they don’t believe — forfeit principles — to get elected or re-elected.

We never believed the governor supported Medicaid expansion. He did nothing visible last session to push it through the Legislature. To the contrary, almost everything Scott has done since 2010 — and before that — has been aimed at limiting or reducing the size of the “state.” What’s more, Scott funded and led the most public campaign to defeat Obamacare before he decided to run for governor.

Actions always speak louder than words.

HYPOCRITE CEOs 

To be sure, Wal-Mart CEO C. Douglas Mcmillon and Apple CEO Tim Cook believed last week they were taking forthright, moral stands against discrimination when they publicly opposed Indiana’s original Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

But while succumbing to the pressures from the tiny, tiny slice of progressives who want to police and punish everyone’s private mind and infringe on religious rights, Mcmillon and Cook willfully sneered at the vast of majority of their customers who unequivocally disagree with them.

And their hypocrisy was deafening: Mcmillion and Cook, whose companies operate and sell in Communist China, the paragon of human rights.

CROSSING GUARDS 

Now there’s an old (good) idea resurrected: posting crossing guards at selected St. Armands Circle crosswalks.

We have advocated this for years — long before the Florida Department of Transportation recommended the idea in 2011.

If any of you have visited Estes Park, Colo., a summer resort town at the foot of the Rocky Mountain National Park, you’re familiar with its teeming pedestrian and vehicular traffic along its downtown thoroughfare, Elkhorn Avenue, at the height of summer.

After years of dealing with jaywalking tourists who create traffic backups and those who think “Don’t walk” signs don’t apply to them, city officials corralled this unruly scene by hiring crossing guards and enforcing strict pedestrian ticketing.

In a short time, order was restored. Tourists now dutifully obey the crossing guards, who are stationed at strategic intersections during peak shopping hours and only during the peak summer months.

In addition to solving a traffic problem, the crossing guards add to the pleasant atmosphere of Estes Park. The city has been able to hire crossing guards with personality and a customer-service attitude. 

It’s worth a try. 

How to fund them? Dare we suggest: Parking meter money would do just that. 

EXCERPTS: Obamacare after five years: Data show Americans are not better off

ALYENE SENGER
HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Obamacare just passed its fifth anniversary as a law, but don’t be surprised if you didn’t hear much about it. After all this time, polls show the public still doesn’t like it.

Results are more important than perception, of course. So let’s ask: If Obamacare is measured on four important metrics — cost, coverage, competition and choice — are we better off now?

Cost. When the law was being debated, President Obama promised the American people that it would reduce the average families’ health care costs by $2,500 a year. But now it’s clear that Obamacare’s flawed policies have had the opposite effect. Far from dropping, costs have increased for the average consumer.

For those who purchase coverage through Healthcare.gov and the state exchanges, their premiums increased dramatically when the law was first implemented in 2014 compared to what comparable coverage cost in the individual market prior to the law’s implementation. Furthermore, as a new Heritage Foundation analysis shows, premiums in the exchanges are continuing to rise in 2015, albeit at a slower rate compared to the huge 2014 increases.

Coverage. As Obamacare’s coverage provisions took effect at the end of 2013, millions of Americans lost their existing health plan. The imposition of new coverage and benefit mandates resulted in a reported 4.7 million health insurance cancellations in 32 states in 2013.

The same is true for those with employer-sponsored insurance. During the first nine months of 2014, a Heritage analysis of the insurance market enrollment data found: Individual-market enrollment grew by 5.83 million, but 4.93 million individuals lost employer coverage — offsetting 85% of the individual-market gain. Thus, the net increase in private health insurance for 2014 is so far 893,000 individuals.

During this same period, Medicaid enrollment grew by almost 7.5 million. Taken together, health coverage increased by 8.38 million, with Medicaid coverage making up 89% of the gain…  

Competition and Choice. Another stated goal of Obamacare was increased insurer competition — another area, unfortunately, where the law has not only failed, but made matters worse. If you compare insurer participation in Obamacare’s exchanges to the individual market prior to the law’s implementation, you find that the exchanges are about 21% less competitive at the state-level in 2015.

State-level numbers on insurer competition often overstate the actual choice available to consumers because insurance is generally priced and sold on a county or regional basis. Indeed, one-third of the nation’s counties only have one or two insurers offering coverage on their Obamacare exchange in 2015. That means insurer choice is either incredibly limited or non-existent for consumers in these areas.

Another 25% of counties only have three insurers offering coverage. Thus, the exchange market in 57% of U.S. counties features competition among three or fewer insurers in 2015.

As a whole, Americans are not better off now than before Obamacare was enacted … It’s time for a change … Reform should be about individual choice, not government mandates.

Alyene Senger is a researcher in the Center for Health Policy Studies at
The Heritage Foundation.