Want to opt out of ObamaCare? Breitbart offers 8 ways to do it

As I discussed this morning in my Detroit News column, I make no apologies for wanting ObamaCare to fail. ObamaCare is a disaster when it works as designed, and everyone in America is better off if it implodes as quickly as possible - except maybe politicians in the Democratic Party, and I don't care about them.

The reason responsible people root for ObamaCare to fail is because that is best for individuals and families in this country, who are better off opting for more advantageous choices. In that spirit, we're linking to a very interesting piece on Breitbart in which Dr. Susan Berry discusses legally available options for Americans who want to opt out of ObamaCare. It wouldn't be fair to Breitbart to excerpt too much of the piece, and we urge to click over there and read the whole thing, but there are a lot of ways to manage the cost of health care if you don't want to carry an insurance policy - especially considering the way they've become so overpriced under ObamaCare. Much of what Dr. Berry offers here comes from the blog of Sean Parnell (presumably not the Alaska governor), who is also the author of a book titled The Self Pay Patient.

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"FormanyAmericans opting out of Obamacare is the best decision they can make, but it's important that they do it the right way -- ust refusing to buy health insurance and not having another way to pay for catastrophic medical expenses is a mistake,”Sean Parnell, author of the newly-releasedThe Self-Pay Patient, told Breitbart News. "People who want to opt out should be looking at alternatives to conventional health insurance, such as joining a health care sharing ministry or purchasing a fixed benefits policy." Parnell also strongly advises Americans against opting out and simply paying the "list” price for medical visits and prescription drugs without shopping around, or by relying solely on the local hospital emergency room for routine medical care. "This approach leaves people who opt out vulnerable to sky-high medical expenses at inflated ‘list’ or ‘chargemaster’ rates, and can result in an inability to obtain needed care because of cost,” Parnell writes on his blog,selfpaypatient.com.

Now Dr. Berry does not suggest you can avoid paying the fine tax (edited by Chief Justice John Roberts), but you will want to educate yourself about that too because it turns out the IRS can only force you to pay it by withholding part of your tax refund if you are owed one. Since I almost always have to pay, I could conceivably go without insurance and still not pay the tax. The same might be true for you. What I can tell you is that our family has taken the self-pay approach to medical care for several years, and what we find is that it offers many advantages, but the structure of health care finance is so convoluted that it takes time to learn how to take advantage of the fact that you are really taking command of your health care purchasing by paying yourself. Many doctor's offices will offer you steep discounts on the spot if you are uninsured and pay cash. You just have to tell them that. The truth is that health insurance is a racket for most people. You are not better off having some bureaucratic third party paying your routine medical costs. You lose control of decisions that should be strictly between you and your doctor, and for the vast majority of Americans, you pay more for this arrangement than it would cost you to just pay your own bills. But you don't realize that because the costs to you have been cleverly hidden by the government and the health insurance industry so that you think it's "free." Believe me, it's not free. And the liberals who harangue you to get insurance lest you "freeload" are not telling you what a rip-off health insurance is as a value proposition. (And since when do liberals love insurance companies?) I would read Dr. Berry's advice with a critical eye, but read it without a doubt, and look into whether some of these options make sense for you. Anything has to be better than ObamaCare, even during the likely short period of time it will probably survive.