ObamaCare At Any Cost
By Paul Hsieh, MD @ 12:05 AM   
The December 2, 2009 Wall Street Journal notes that the alleged cost savings of ObamaCare are illusory.
Here is an excerpt from their piece, "ObamaCare at Any Cost":...Instead, CBO is confirming that new coverage mandates will drive premiums higher. But Democrats are declaring victory, claiming that these higher insurance prices don't count because they will be offset by new government subsidies. About 57% of the people who buy insurance through the bill's new "exchanges" that will supplant today's individual market will qualify for subsidies that cover about two-thirds of the total premium.
So the bill will increase costs but it will then disguise those costs by transferring them to taxpayers from individuals. Higher costs can be conjured away because they're suddenly on the government balance sheet. The Reid bill's $371.9 billion in new health taxes are also apparently not a new cost because they can be passed along to consumers, or perhaps will be hidden in lost wages.
This is the paleoliberal school of brute-force wealth redistribution, and a very long way from the repeated White House claims that reform is all about "bending the cost curve." The only thing being bent here is the budget truth. Fortunately, David Catron notes, most Americans don't believe the "cost cutting" BS.
They're wise not to.
And the WSJ reaches the natural conclusion:...Democrats don't care because their bill isn't really about "lowering costs." It's about putting Washington in charge of health insurance, at any cost. (Read the full text of "ObamaCare at Any Cost".)Labels: OpEd
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