In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Henry J. Aaron, senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, writes that rolling back and defunding Obamacare would create “zombie legislation … [i.e.,] a program that lives on but works badly.”
If Aaron is looking for a B horror movie reference to describe the state of American health care under Obamacare, “Frankenstein” would be a much more appropriate choice. Obamacare is a slipshod, pieced-together monster made of bad policy and covered in bolts and scars from the legislative process.
Though proponents of the health care law may still be heard shouting, “It’s alive! It’s alive!,” the truth is that conservatives and liberals alike recognize that, as Aaron puts it, “successful implementation poses remarkable challenges and will require adequate funding, enormous ingenuity, and goodwill from federal and state officials, as well as cooperation from private insurers, businesses, and private citizens.”
All that’s a long shot, as we’ve already seen.
According to Aaron, if Obamacare opponents “gain a majority in either house of Congress, they could not only withhold needed appropriations but also bar the use of whatever funds are appropriated for [the law’s] implementation. … They could bar the use of staff time for designing rules for implementation. … They could even bar the [Department of Health and Human Services] from writing or issuing regulations or engaging in any other federal activity related to the creation of health insurance exchanges.”
Aaron and other liberals recognize the sound of voters punching ballots for what it is: the death knell of their monstrous creation. Aaron’s article makes it clear that apprehensiveness abounds as liberals become increasingly aware that the fight to take down the monster is anything but over.
To read more about the prospects for ending Obamacare, click here.
Co-authored by Charlie Adair. Adair is currently a member of the Young Leaders Program at the Heritage Foundation. For more information on interning at Heritage, please visit: http://www.heritage.org/about/departments/ylp.cfm
