Efforts by the government to hide the premiums Americans will have to pay under the Affordable Care Act are what have led to the troubles in signing up for it on the Internet, says Dr. Paul Howard, director of the Manhattan Institute's Center for Medical Progress.
"The structure of the website was what really appears to be killing them right now in terms of they didn't want people to see premiums before they saw the subsidies that might come to them in the form of offsetting the cost of the premiums," Howard told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
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"That made it very unwieldy in terms of having to check with the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security to print and verify citizenship, Medicaid eligibility for state Medicaid agencies, [and] a whole host of agencies that had to be queried in real time to try and establish your eligibility and subsidies for Medicaid.
"That made the whole program come crashing down."
Howard said the Affordable Care Act will have winners and losers.
"If you're at the low-income end of the spectrum, you can qualify for Medicaid or close to Medicaid coverage; you're going to be able to get low-cost insurance probably with a high deductible," he said.
"If you're more middle-income, especially if you're a young or healthier person, you're going to see your costs go up."
He said the law, which increases the federal government's control of healthcare, could end up costing Americans more.
"The track record of the federal government when it regulates things is it tends to make them more expensive, not more affordable," Howard said.
"At the end of the day, people who thought that this was going to be cheaper, better, more accessible are going to find themselves dealing with a more bureaucratic reality. Americans are going to want to move to something different after they get to experience that."
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