The biggest reason ObamaCare has gotten this far is a lack of careful analysis. State-run health insurance exchanges represent a perfect example.
Let's take Kentucky's Health Benefit Exchange. What we are getting is a web site people can use for comparing and purchasing health insurance under ObamaCare. Be careful not to confuse KHBE with www.ehealthinsurance.com, a private site serving the same purpose and not costing us anything. No, KHBE will be "better." Trust them.
This should beg several questions. Chief among them is the cost of running KHBE. Under ObamaCare , KHBE is a new permanent bureaucracy we will have to pay for starting January 1, 2015. According to KHBE's own estimate, that cost will be $39 million a year.
No analysis of ObamaCare shows it actually lowering costs. At best it transfers some uncompensated care expenses back and forth between consumers, and KHBE will be no different. Insurance consumers forced to do business with KHBE will pay extra to cover the $39 million.
And the amount is only going to be that low to the extent that the estimate is valid or for as long as costs don't increase further. Any guesses how that will work out for us?
The largest annual component of this cost estimate is $20.5 million. That's the current annual contract KHBE has with Deloitte for IT consulting. The second largest component is $11 million in spending for new state employees. Then comes $3.3 million in contracts with other state employees. After that, we have $2.9 million in hardware and software maintenance and licensing and $1.3 million for "miscellaneous" costs.
Governor Beshear signed off on all this nonsense with an executive order setting up KHBE for ObamaCare. He also told us he managed a $46 million budget surplus last year, though we now know better. More than half the other states have ruled out setting up ObamaCare exchanges despite pressure from the Obama Administration and the Republican Establishment.
Resisting temptation from both sides of the political status quo is as simple as digging into the numbers. Any questions?
