Name:   copperline - Subject:   Obama economy legacy building Date:   4/23/2016 11:37:48 AM

Bingo!   A huge part of the problem with our health care system is the presence of insurance companies who compete to make a larger profit margin, and that it is designed to be linked to employers thru the use of employee insurance pools up to now.  It never made sense to me that insurance companies couldn't create "pools" of individual subscribers rather than restricting their contracting to individual companies and their employee groups.    Obamacare makes that happen.....now health insurance doesn't have to be tied to a particular employer & job status, it can be portable... allowing workers to make decisions about their careers without fear of losing their coverage when they change jobs.   This makes the US workforce more mobile, and better able to adapt to changes in geographic employment patterns over time.  It was never a good idea that some people had to say 'I have a lousy job and could do better, but I don't dare try to change jobs because of what it might do to my family's health insurance coverage".   

Somehow,  capitalism and healthcare just don't fit together and work the same way as, say, capitalism and industrial production.   When automakers compete, creating more cars & more ways to buy them, the law of supply and demand makes the price of cars go down.   In healthcare, hospitals routinely sue each other to prevent the opening of other hospitals by citing that more hospital beds will make the cost of healthcare go UP... the reverse of what would be predicted by the Law of Supply and Demand.  

I never heard a car dealer say that if another dealership opened down the street, it would make them have to RAISE the price of cars!

As far as Obama's economic legacy goes.... the US automobile industry was saved from bankruptcy & is improving, the US banking & financial sector did not disintegrate because of the interventions of his administration,  & insured healthcare is now available to 11-15 million new subscribers.   Yes, the stock market is fairly stagnant... but the global economy isn't under the control of the US President.  Interesting to note that Obama would be blamed for the decline of Sears Roebuck & lackluster growth of Caterpillar, but not praised for $2 gasoline.... which has put a tremendous amount of money immediately back into the pockets of consumers every day.   Odd that no one is blaming him for that.