My Comment: I don’t want to see ObamaCare struck down. Yes, there are elements that need to change, ideas and components that perhaps should not be there. But to throw out the whole idea because there are elements that have developed unintended consequences is foolish.

There is a parallel here between an assertion that since there are abuses to the Medicare system, we should simply do away with it and what some are hoping will happen to ObamaCare. Medicare exists to provide healthcare to our elderly citizens who might otherwise be simply left to die. As a society we realized that was not a good thing so Medicare was invented. ObamaCare extends this idea to the approximately 50,000,000 citizens who do not today have access to adequate health care. That’s wrong. And there are powerful economic, moral, and human reasons for providing a remedy.

By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar April 24, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — If the Supreme Court strikes down President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, don’t look to government for what comes next.

Employers and insurance companies will take charge. They’ll borrow some ideas from Obamacare, ditch others, and push even harder to cut costs.

Here’s what experts say to expect:
— Workers will bear more of their own medical costs as job coverage shifts to plans with higher deductibles, the amount you pay out of pocket each year before insurance kicks in. Traditional insurance will lose ground to high-deductible plans with tax-free accounts for routine expenses, to which employers can contribute.

— Increasingly, smokers will face financial penalties if they don’t at least seriously try to quit. Employees with a weight problem and high cholesterol are next. They’ll get tagged as health risks and nudged into diet programs.

— Some companies will keep the health care law’s most popular benefit so far, coverage for adult children until they turn 26. Others will cut it to save money.

— Workers and family members will be steered to hospitals and doctors that can prove that they deliver quality care. These medical providers would earn part of their fees for keeping patients as healthy as possible, similar to the “accountable care organizations” in the health care law.

— Some workers will pick their health plans from a private insurance exchange, another similarity to Obama’s law. They’ll get fixed payments from their employers to choose from four levels of coverage: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. Those who pick rich benefits would pay more.

“Employers had been the major force driving health care change in this country up until the passage of health reform,” said Tom Billet, a senior benefits consultant with Towers Watson, which advises major companies. “If Obamacare disappears … we go back to square one. We still have a major problem in this country with very expensive health care.”

Business can’t and won’t take care of America’s 50 million uninsured.