The Median Voter, The Marginal Patient, and Obamacare: Why No Politician Competes for the Votes of Cancer Patients

On October 30, President Obama gave a now infamous speech celebrating the going out of business of so-called “bad apple” insurers.

According to the President, “before the Affordable Care Act, these bad apple insurers had free rein every single year to limit the care that you received or used minor pre-existing conditions to jack up your premiums or bill you into bankruptcy.”

Only a few days later, Edie Sundby of San Diego wrote a heartbreaking op-ed in The Wall Street Journal describing how ObamaCare had forced her health insurer to cancel her policy, which had already spent $1.2 million on her treatment for a rare cancer. She may well go into 2014 without health insurance.

Much has been written about Ms. Sundby’s tragedy. This article will attempt to explain the political science behind the crisis.

Read the entire article at the Independent Institute's Beacon blog or John Goodman's Health Policy Blog.