Burning ACA cards is just bad strategy

Published 8:47 pm Wednesday, August 7, 2013

By Staff Reports

 

Even as political theater, this flopped. FreedomWorks recently staged the burning of “Obamacare cards” by young people, reminiscent of the burning of draft cards. Only, there are no Obamacare cards, and the larger message the event communicated is that young people should be freeloaders.

“If you oppose Obamacare — as 49 percent of the public does — the Exchanges provide an opportunity,” a flier for the event says. “If not enough people enroll, the Exchanges will fail. If the Exchanges fail, Obamacare fails. Defend your freedom by refusing to enroll.”

As the Washington Post reported, “The draft cards are not actual government documents; they’re photocopies of Vietnam-era draft cards with the word Obamacare added to the top. The gesture is a symbolic one, that comes with a pledge not to purchase health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.”

It’s no secret that for Obamacare to work, young people must sign up. The system needs everyone paying into the pot, if it’s going to keep older and less healthy Americans covered. So those who oppose Obamacare are right — without young people participating, Obamacare can’t be self-sustaining.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t be sustained. It will be, by bigger and bigger infusions of federal tax dollars. Conservative groups like FreedomWorks might want to think about that. Discouraging the young from purchasing health coverage won’t doom Obamacare, it will only ensure that taxpayers are on the hook for it.



Second, young people should purchase insurance, because what happens when they don’t? They will get sick, they will suffer injuries, and they will require health care — at some point in their young lives. Without insurance, they’ll show up at emergency rooms and taxpayers will have to pay that bill.

Liberal blogger Andrew Sullivan notes that the FreedomWorks event goes against conservative principles.

“For conservatives, freedom is always coupled with personal responsibility,” he points out. “Your right to be free from government interference is also an implicit statement that you can take care of yourself — and won’t at some point suddenly change your mind.”

Sullivan points out that since 1986, hospitals have been required to treat everyone who walks in who is seriously ill or injured.

“In the most fundamental way, that was the moment the U.S. socialized medicine — and Ronald Reagan signed the bill,” he notes.

The result has been higher costs for everyone, as hospitals charge people more, to recoup their losses on those who can’t pay.

“What Obamacare does, like Romneycare before it, is end this free-loading,” he says.

That’s where FreedomWorks’ logic fails. Young people can pledge to not participate in Obamacare and not buy insurance, but they can’t pledge to not need health care. We all do, eventually. They’re gambling that they won’t get sick or get hurt, but they’re gambling with our money. And it’s a losing bet.

If conservatives want to end Obamacare, they’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way — by getting candidates who share their views elected. That doesn’t have the appeal of burning Obamacare cards, but at least it doesn’t look silly.