Mencken's Hobgoblins

Interesting item in the Wall Street Journal...

When the health care debate was raging, we were led to believe that the insurance industry's victims were so numerous and pervasive that it was a crisis demanding a government solution. We were led to believe that a major element of this crisis was the denial of coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.

With the passage of Obamacare, the department of Health and Human Services was given the ability to design its own plans to insure those with pre-existing conditions. States were given the option of designing their own such plans, and 27 chose to do so. In July, HHS estimated that these plans would be insuring 375,000 people by now. As of Nov. 1, combined federal-state enrollment, according to HHS, is 8,011.

Now, government estimates on just about everything are famous for being wrong, but an estimate that is off by approximately 97% in just a few months has to be some kind of record. One has to wonder if the pre-existing condition crisis was as dire as Obama's rhetoric suggested. And one has to wonder if it was sufficient justification for the government to take over about one sixth of the economy. Perhaps a more modest fix should have been considered.