Unintended consequences. The
ripple effect in the water that will become a churning, giant tsunami wave
crashing on distant shores. The tremors building and rumbling into an eventual
9.5 Richter earthquake, resulting in the shock waves weeks thereafter. The
argument with the spouse that leads to a small remark that you wish you could
take back. You had "no idea" that would be taken that way! But it is
interpreted in ways you'd never foreseen! The butterfly effect. Unintended consequences can be extremely detrimental to the individual with regard to Government intervention. Markets and personal liberties can be rattled, indirectly, by the unintended consequences of their actions. Many examples can be cited throughout history. One example in particular is one that is fresh in the news, as well as in our everyday lives.
Governmental intervention and its unintended consequences can be exemplified through the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
EVERYONE needs healthcare coverage, don't they? What could go wrong with
creating a national healthcare plan? You may already HAVE insurance. Why not
help those that are unable to do so? Sounds fair, doesn't it? And you LOVE your
plan! That’s why you most likely spent an entire day fleshing out “your plan” in
a mind numbing meeting. You spent hours with insurance representatives, agonizing
over the options, to which you found the perfect, little combination of benefits
that complimented you and your family. You wanted to keep "your plan"! And they
ensured within the law itself that you COULD keep your plan...as long as it
wasn't adjusted! It was considered grandfathered, as long as no changes were made to
your plan. Any sort of adjustment that did not comply with the affordable care
act was canceled by law. Examples abound within the “News” cycles and stories. In
Colorado, plans that have adjusted to the economic demands of the Affordable
Healthcare Act are currently being discontinued. Maybe it was due to that fact they
can’t handle the new economic strain? Maybe, they've moved to an economically viable
solution to forge the business's "going concern", as they strive to meet new demands from the consequences of being compliant
to the A.C.A?
There is an interesting, “perfect storm” that occurs when an existing plan adjusts its benefits to weather the new, excrement storm that looms over the horizon. It loses its “grandfathered status”. That plan is no longer under the definition of a “grandfathered plan”. It is also no longer under the definition of “your plan”. You lose “your plan”. A grandfathered plan is a health plan in force on March 23, 2010. It can continue to be an exempt plan if it follows certain requirements, to maintain the grandfathered status. Some of the requirements that would cause the loss of grandfathered status include: Eliminating benefits, increasing a participants’ percentage cost-sharing requirement, certain reductions in employer or employee organization contributions rates, annual benefit limits that are changed. A provision in the law states that when your plan did not comply with the requirements, that it was no longer grandfathered. Once canceled, you were required to be issued a written notice. This notice was to explain all of the reasons for the cancellation, along with the fact that you’ll need to procure another plan. In a perfect world, your ORIGINAL plan was grandfathered. The unintended consequences of government intervention at work. Market forces, due to this law, caused a situation that lead to almost every plan to be re-calibrated in order to cover the new cost and the new expenses. Being forced to cover people that already had conditions that would not allow them to receive insurance, which required paying TONS of additional medical expenses, caused plan adjustments to occur. And that's when your pretty, little plan was “shocked to death” and you received a nice little “Dear John” letter from your provider in the mail. But government didn't really consider those consequences, and to what extent those consequential results would eventually lead (Or DID they…that’s another topic, for another day). We now have to pay for the intervention of their “intentions”.
Ultimately, when the government
intercedes, you get the ripples from the consequences of their actions. The
butterfly effect from the flapping of their political “wings” leads to a national disaster
that will cause years of strife and a “Trail of Tears”. A politician’s status
of being “needed”, which in turn defines them as elite, means that they are
throwing YOU the bone. They’ll be fine on their politically crafted, Cadillac
Plans that you or I will never have the opportunity to enjoy. It is you and I that will be continually
burned by the “Unintended Consequences” of their actions. Unless we realize the
REAL roles that are to be restored. WE vote them into office. THEY are public
servants that should engage in that thing we call “representation”. We need to
demand a return to the definition of a Representative Republic...as “We, The
People”.
