Kerby Anderson

A commentary in The Hill by Dr. Merrill Matthews had a title that was guaranteed to get your attention: “When ObamaCare Costs More than Leasing a Rolls-Royce.” He was on my radio program recently to talk about that article and many other issues dealing with tax reform.

Matthews was talking to a friend who is also a tax policy expert living in Northern Virginia. His friend started looking at his family health insurance options. He was horrified to discover that a CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield gold-level HMO with a $1,000 deductible would cost $2,500 per month.

Most people would rather choose a PPO (Preferred Provider Organization). These allow patients to have more flexibility, but are more expensive. His friend found that a BlueCross silver-level family PPO plan with a $3,500 deductible would cost $2,729 per month. The gold PPO with a $1,000 deductible would cost $3,087.

That got Merrill Matthews thinking. What would it cost to lease an ultra-high-end car? A Bentley would cost $2,289 per month. And Aston-Martin DB11 is $2,371. And a Rolls-Royce Dawn is $2,750. In other words, his friend could lease a Rolls-Royce for less than a gold-level Blue Cross PPO policy for his family.

You might suppose that at that price you could choose which doctors and which clinics you could use. Dr. Merrill Matthews reminds us that the world famous Houston-based M.D. Anderson Cancer Center accepts several insurance plans. But there is one type of insurance it will not accept: ObamaCare.

I have one question: wasn’t the original bill that gave us ObamaCare called the Affordable Care Act?

e