Paul Krugman is Wrong… Again

Laissez Faire Today takes on Paul Krugman and his praise of ObamaCare:

Krugman points to the experience of health reform in Massachusetts in predicting how wonderful health reform is going to be:

“Massachusetts has had essentially this system since 2006; as a result, nearly all residents have health insurance, and the program remains very popular. So we know that Obamacare — or as some of us call it, ObamaRomneyCare — can work.”

But what has really happened in the Bay state? Insurance sold in the Massachusetts exchange pays doctors and hospitals only about 10% more than what Medicaid pays. And for reasons that are not entirely clear, doctors are less willing to see the newly insured (with exchange subsidies) than Medicaid patients.

The Massachusetts reformers believed that once everyone was insured, patients would go to the doctor’s office for primary care, rather than to the hospital emergency room. But in expanding the demand for care, they (just like Obamacare) did nothing about supply. The newly insured can’t go to doctors’ offices for their primary care if there aren’t any more doctors’ offices.

Here is what is happening on the ground. Traffic to hospital emergency rooms in Massachusetts is higher today than before health reform. Traffic to community health centers is almost one-third higher than it was before reform. Yet the time it takes to get care is growing.

An article well worth your time.