Well, information about Hillary’s health care plan began rolling out today. The pundits on either side have had much to say. I have heard truths, half-truths and lies. However, being one who does not believe someone on face value I have done some research. I do not profess to be an authority on the subject but I have acquired some particulars and have obtained a familiarity. Being neither a Republican nor a Democrat but more of a Libertarian (with differing views on the War on Terror) I tend to consult the Constitution (unlike many of our politicians on both sides).
This is what we all know. This will make or break Hillary. After being defeated on the first attempt, she has made this personal. Everything she has worked for or suffered (the humiliations put upon her by Bill) has led her to this moment. If she is not able to bring her baby to term she will be done, forever a footnote to history. To her credit though, she has learned a few lessons. Instead of the massive bill she put forth the first time, she has whittled it down. If she can get this less extensive version passed the other components would fall in line.
Mouth pieces for each side have been giving the partisan spin. The Liberals are playing down the costs while playing up the “poor, downtrodden working class” angle. The Conservatives are playing up the “actual” costs and Constitutional issues while playing down the problems with our current system.
Well, after some study I have to side with the Conservatives here. Let’s skip over the Constitutional issues for now. Hillary claims this program will cost 100+ billion to implement. Economic think tanks have determined this number to be well off the mark. Heritage.org reported that the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) estimate of the annual cost of the 1988 drug benefit jumped from $5.7 billion when the bill was passed to $11.8 billion just twelve months later. The CBO raised the cost of a new skilled nursing benefit from $2.1 billion to $13.5 billion, or by 642 percent, in just 14 months. The revisions were prompted by new assumptions based on the final version of the bill. Every social program since FDR’s “New Deal” has cost at best a minimum of twice what was stated. At worst, exponentially more. I do mean every single one. Do not take my word for it. Look it up.
Hillary’s plan calls for every American to purchase health care through private or public avenues. Mandates are not only unconstitutional but not necessary. You can not force anyone to buy anything. I’ve heard comparisons to car insurance. It’s the law in every state that if you drive you must carry liability insurance. So, according to those people you are forced to buy insurance. No, no you’re not. First, liability only covers damage to another’s property or injury to another. Health insurance does not protect those around you. You can choose not to drive. You can make that decision for yourself. You can not decide to never get sick.
If you choose not to purchase health care, then you will be punished though the loss of tax deductions, denial of employment and others. Her plan will require every “citizen” (what about the illegal aliens?) to provide evidence of coverage before applying for employment. You must go to the government to acquire coverage before you can get a job. Talk about stomping on my rights.
“Our present system is outdated, ineffective, and unsustainable. But we know we can spend far less and create an efficient, high-quality health care system for all Americans,” the New York senator said in remarks prepared for delivery at George Washington University. This statement is ridiculous. History shows that the Federal Government has never been involved in ANY venture where they proved to be more efficient than the private sector. (With the possible exception of mailing checks) As for “spending far less”, again our government (the legislature) has never exhibited any self control on spending. Why should we believe this instance would be different? It can not be.
“The key is to modernize our health care infrastructure and demand a better return on our investment.” Clinton criticized health insurers for steering clear of Americans with expensive, pre-existing conditions, and called for ending insurance discrimination. Under the plan, a “guarantee-issue” system would allow anyone to join an insurance plan and would bar insurers from carving out benefits or charging higher rates to people with health problems. So, according to Hillary why should I pay for coverage until I get sick? This sounds a lot like bailing out flood victims who build in a flood prone area. You purchase insurance in advance of an incident. I am offended when the government spends my money to bail out the stupid or the ill-prepared. Oh, gee I have a rare blood disease that costs thousands of dollars to treat. I could have obtained health coverage before but I wanted the plasma screen, cable, my cell phone, spinners on my rims and a six pack every night. So, now that I’m sick I want my neighbor, who obtained his coverage and waited on the plasma, etc. It’s not fair that they won’t insure me at the normal rate or at all even they know it’s a loss for them and will raise the rates of others. The government will take care of me, why worry about it myself. What a load of crap. We are responsible for our own lives. It is not the job of government to save me from myself. That’s a discussion for another day.
The 14-page plan also outlined proposals to improve outcomes of the chronically ill, who usually incur catastrophic expenses and are a key driver of rising health-care costs. I thought we had a plan for the indigent. It’s called Medicaid. Every poor individual in this country can apply. That brings up another point. The liberals speak as though people are refused treatment everyday for lack of insurance. That is not true. Hospitals do not, due to local laws and ethics, refuse treatment to anyone. Even illegal aliens receive treatment.
Clinton would require that all employers offer coverage, that all residents buy it, and that Washington dictate its price and content. She would levy higher income taxes on the wealthy and hidden taxes on everyone. Clinton still equates reform with less freedom. Gone is the freedom to choose whether to purchase health insurance. The freedom to purchase the insurance you want. Gone is the freedom to run a competitive business. To hold on to your earnings. To make your own health care decisions. Gone, gone and gone.
But how big is the free-rider problem, really? First, we should note that not all free riders are uninsured. In fact, people with insurance consume almost a third of uncompensated care. Second, not all care received by the uninsured is paid for by others. Analysts at the Urban Institute found that the uninsured pay more than 25 percent of their health expenditures out of pocket.
So how much uncompensated care is received by the uninsured? The same study puts the number at about $35 billion a year in 2001, or only 2.8 percent of total health care expenditures for that year. In other words, even if the individual mandate works exactly as planned, it will affect at best a mere 3 percent of health care expenditures. The Cato Institute’s health policy work is designed to show that the only way to make health care of ever-increasing quality available to an ever-increasing number of consumers is to put consumers in charge of their health care dollars and decisions. With that in mind, Cato has worked to familiarize the public, media and policymakers with the free-market alternative to managed care and single-payer plans—health savings accounts (HSAs).
A comprehensive market-based approach to controlling health care costs was first developed by Cato’s scholars in the 1980s and set forth in a book in 1992 called Patient Power: Solving America’s Health Care Crisis. The condensed version of Patient Power sold 300,000 copies and is credited with playing a pivotal role in the defeat of the Clinton administration’s plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system. Cato scholars took the initiative to outline the health care reform debate before the Clinton administration issued its proposal, thus helping to avert a national policy disaster.
Other Cato publications have focused on the right and wrong ways to reform Medicare, tax treatment of employer-provided health insurance, and prescription drug costs. In particular, Cato has been a longtime advocate of deregulating the health care industry so that consumers can afford the health care insurance and treatment of their choice. Various Cato publications have documented the heavy costs associated with government regulation of insurance, drugs and medical devices, health care professionals, hospitals and clinics, and the medical malpractice system. A recent Cato Policy Analysis, “Health Care Regulation: A $169 Billion Hidden Tax,” by Duke University professor Christopher J. Conover found that the costs of health care regulation outweigh the benefits by two-to-one and make health insurance unaffordable for roughly 7.5 million Americans.
Something else that the liberals fail to mention is that much of the cost of healthcare is due to compliance with government regulations. We are not permitted to shop out of state which limits competition. Policies must carry mandated coverage. A couple of examples include my policy which covers me if I get pregnant or decide to get a hysterectomy. The women in my office are covered in case they have a problem with their testicles, prostate or decide to get a vasectomy. We are not allowed to purchase a plan based on our needs. This would bring the cost way down. But, alas the government will not allow that.
Do not mistake the intentions behind this ludicrous idea. Hillary and the others do not care about your health. They do not care whether you are covered. They do not care how much or little you spend. They care only about power. The more we have to rely on the Federal Government the more power it gains. Politicians, in this case liberal democrats pander to fear. They know this gets them re-elected. We hear how horrible our lives are, how unfair this or that is, how the evil rich must pay their share (most middle class or poor do not pay income tax, I get all my withholding refunded each April and so do most of you, the wealthy are paying the vast majority of taxes in this country. Again, that is a topic for another day.) They need us to depend on them to survive. They try to scare us to death so we go running to the polls. What we need is for our government to stay out of our lives and get back to their duties as laid out in the Constitution.
