Why Knowledge Is Important (Pre-Existing Conditions)
Josh Blackman highlights one of those political truisms that still surprises when one sees evidence.
First, he cites a 2009 Kaiser Family survey finding that support flips for an ObamaCare provision that makes it difficult “for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it the most” when people are informed that it would increase their own premiums. Next, he cites the same phenomenon in a more recent Cato/YouGov survey, concerning the “community rating” provision that forbids adjusting premiums based on medical history.
This is why it makes a difference how surveys are worded and, even more, what points news stories present. It makes progressive policies look much, much more attractive if there’s never any cost associated with the feel-good legislation. Every story should contain a micro-lesson on basic economics.
Making this tendency more tragic, in this case, is that these small populations of exceptions could be addressed in ways that are much more fair and much better economically and with regard to outcomes.
Knowledge, as they say, is power, which is why the Left spent decades corrupting institutions like the media and higher education by which Western Civilization transmits its information.
