Opinion: Reform Law Will Hinder Insurance Expansion
The latest U.S. Census Bureau data indicate that since 2009, the nation's uninsured population increased by 919,000 to 49.9 million, figures that proponents of the federal health reform law "have cited ... as proof of the need for ObamaCare," Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. However, "any coverage gains delivered by the law will undoubtedly be undermined by the law's $800 billion in tax increases," and "many employers are also set to drop the coverage they offer" because of the law's "mandates and regulations," Pipes argues. She adds that "the uninsured rate won't fall unless the economy starts humming again. Unfortunately, ObamaCare's billions of dollars in new taxes and regulations won't allow that to happen."
- "The Census, ObamaCare and the Uninsured" (Pipes, Wall Street Journal, 9/26).