The Business of Health Care

The chief business of the American people is business.

President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), Speech before American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1925

Whether the chief business of the American people is business is debatable. But economic growth and prosperity , more than national security, income gap between rich and poor, and health care, may be most important issue in 2016 presidential campaign.

These issues are intertwined, as reflected in these articles:

• “Health Care Law Forces Businesses to Consider Growth’s Costs,: NYT, 11/18

• “UnitedHealth Raises Doubts about Its Participation in Health Exchanges,” WSJ, 11/19


• “Why It Matters That New Businesses Are Creating Jobs More Slowly Than A Decade Ago,” WSJ, 11/19

. "Rising Rates Pose Challenge for Health Law," WSJ, 11/19

. "In Many of ObamaCare Markets, Renewal In Not an Option, 11/18

As we all know, health care has a moral component as well, namely, 1) reducing the number of the nation’s uninsured; 2) and making health care affordable.
ObamaCare may be succeeding on the first count while failing on the secondfor the middle class and businesses too.

In the face of such measures at the highest U.S. corporate income tax in the world, businesses will move headquarters , workers, and money abroad. Faced with an employer mandate that it must cover all workers it must insure al worker if it has more 50 employees or pay a $2000 fine for each additional, businesses will stop growing and fall short of employing 50 full-time workers. Confronted with heavy losses for insuring people in health exchanges, health insurers will drop out of the exchanges. Faced with the realities of higher premiums and outlandish out-of-pocket costs of ObamaCare plans, consumers will recognize a bad business deal and not renew.

Business is business and business must grow, and business must be profitable to compete and sustain itself, or it will drop out of the race or move to another place.