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What's Wrong With Health-Care Reform: A Recap
The House has yet to vote on a final bill, and the Senate has yet to release any complete legislation, but the various health-care reform proposals are starting to shape up. And, not surprisingly, there's quite a bit to worry about. Here's a recap of the major objections currently making the rounds:
It will not save money. In fact, according to CBO director Douglas Elmendorf, it will "significantly expand the federal responsibility for health-care costs," exacerbating rather curing the dire, health-care driven budget problems we already face. As Ron Bailey pointed out earlier today, this is the result when you use official government cost estimates. And as the Massachusetts experiment with universal coverage taught us, the true cost of any universal-coverage oriented health-care overhaul is likely to be far higher than projected.
It will likely shift people away from their current health-insurance plans. Depending on the final details surrounding the proposed public plan, some people will almost certainly end up moved away from their current plans. At a bare minimum, Obama's promise that individuals will be able to keep their current health-insurance is misleading.
It will raise taxes. On people who make too much money, perhaps. Or perhaps on people who make money off of rental units. Or maybe, if Senate Finance Chairman and health-care poobah Max Baucus has his way, it will tax the middle class by way of their employer-provided health benefits. No matter what, any bill will cost a lot of money, so someone's going to pay for it.
It will be tough on small and medium-sized businesses. According the Wall Street Journal, under the current House plan, "all but the smallest businesses" would be slapped with "a penalty equal to 8% of payroll if they fail to provide health insurance to workers." Meanwhile, the drug industry, which Obama promised to "take on" during the campaign, has extracted endless concessions, and supposed liberal villain Wal-Mart would make out rather well by using legislation as a weapon against its competitors.
It will pave the way for health-care shortages. There's widespread agreement that the current system of medical provider payments in Medicare and Medicaid is a mess. But depending on how the plan shakes out, reduced doctor payments might essentially result in a system of health-care price controls, potentially causing shortages in care. Even if the system were set up so as not to reduce payments now, one can easily imagine anxious government officials cutting payments in the future in response to unexpected cost overruns like we've witnessed in Massachusetts.
|7.17.09 @ 4:40PM|#
I'd be interested to know the facts behind this
Investor's Business Daily article.
Transcript:
It's Not An Option
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:20
PM PT
Congress: It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when
reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right
there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical
insurance illegal.
When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page
document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it.
So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.
It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw
individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of
"Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation
On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:
"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health
insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any
individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage
is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes
law.
So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised - with, of
course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual
coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a
company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from
private carriers.
From the beginning, opponents of the public option plan have warned
that if the government gets into the business of offering
subsidized health insurance coverage, the private insurance market
will wither. Drawn by a public option that will be 30% to 40%
cheaper than their current premiums because taxpayers will be
funding it, employers will gladly scrap their private plans and go
with Washington's coverage.
The nonpartisan Lewin Group estimated in April that 120 million or
more Americans could lose their group coverage at work and end up
in such a program. That would leave private carriers with 50
million or fewer customers. This could cause the market to, as
Lewin Vice President John Sheils put it, "fizzle out
altogether."
What wasn't known until now is that the bill itself will kill the
market for private individual coverage by not letting any new
policies be written after the public option becomes law.
The legislation is also likely to finish off health savings
accounts, a goal that Democrats have had for years. They want to
crush that alternative because nothing gives individuals more
control over their medical care, and the government less, than
HSAs.
With HSAs out of the way, a key obstacle to the left's expansion of
the welfare state will be removed.
The public option won't be an option for many, but rather a mandate
for buying government care. A free people should be outraged at
this advance of soft tyranny.
Washington does not have the constitutional or moral authority to
outlaw private markets in which parties voluntarily participate. It
shouldn't be killing business opportunities, or limiting choices,
or legislating major changes in Americans' lives.
It took just 16 pages of reading to find this naked attempt by the
political powers to increase their reach. It's scary to think how
many more breaches of liberty we'll come across in the final
1,002.
Kevin|7.17.09 @ 4:46PM|#
mediageek, I was curious about that, too. I heard it in one
place but it hasn't gone viral yet.
Also, this being a health care thread, I'm expecting a "Yo, fuck
Kevin" in 3,2,1...
<-->|7.17.09 @ 5:07PM|#
FOX News tells me that the 2009 Healthcare Scheme is dead.
MSNBC says there's nothing to worry about, and soon everyone will
have access to free doctors.
I'm so confused.
Kevin|7.17.09 @ 5:17PM|#
Warty, I really feel like I fit in now that I'v gotten both a "Shut the fuck up" and "Yo, fuck Kevin" in the same week. Life is good.
Warty|7.17.09 @ 5:19PM|#
You're not one of us until SugarFree writes a horrifying sex story about you.
|7.17.09 @ 5:23PM|#
THIS IS IT!
The healthcare reform bill released by the House Of Representatives
is an excellent bill as I understand it. It's a bill with a strong,
robust, government-run public option, and an intelligent,
reasonable initial funding plan to cover almost all of the American
people. It is carefully written, and thoughtfully constructed,
informed, prudent and wise. This bill will save trillions of
dollars, and millions of your lives. It is also now supported by
the AMA.
This is the type of bill that all Americans can feel good about.
And this is the type of bill that has the potential to dramatically
improve the quality of healthcare for all Americans. Rich, middle
class and poor a like. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and
all other party affiliations. This bill has the potential to
dramatically improve the quality of life of every American.
The house healthcare bill should be viewed as the minimum GOLD
STANDARD by which all other proposed healthcare legislation should
be judged. All supporters of true high quality healthcare reform
should now place all your support behind this healthcare reform
bill released by the United States House Of Representatives, as the
minimum Gold standard for healthcare reform in America.
You should all now support this bill with all your might, and all
of your unrelenting tenacity. This healthcare bill is a VERY, VERY
GOOD! bill for all of the American people. Fight tooth, and nail
for every bit of this bill if you have too. Be aggressive,
creative, and relentless for this bill.
From this time forward, go BIGGER and DEEPER with the American
people every day until passage of healthcare reform with a robust,
government-run public option.
FIGHT!! like your life and the lives of your loved ones depends on
it. BECAUSE IT DOES!
It should also be noted that Ron Wyden's "Free Choice Proposal" in
the senate is a highly intriguing proposal and possibly a brilliant
idea. And an Idea that should be strongly looked into as a way of
increasing consumer choice, and consumer access to a government-run
public option.
SPREAD THE WORD
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSM8t_cLZgk&feature=player_embedded)
God Bless You
Jack Smith - Working Class
Warty|7.17.09 @ 5:29PM|#
go BIGGER and DEEPER with the American people every
day
SugarFree, your skills are needed.
kilroy|7.17.09 @ 5:32PM|#
I've seen that jacksmith post before, only last time it was bigger, longer and uncut.
|7.17.09 @ 5:40PM|#
HealthCareBot?
Does the poster of that tripe actually think that he will get
anything but a hostile reception here? I mean, I think even the
regulars here who are for this sort of thing would write this crap
off as unabashed boosterism. It sounds about as genuine as a $3
bill.
Mad Max|7.17.09 @ 5:41PM|#
Final reason:
Guess what procedure the federal government could be able to force
providers to perform?
|7.17.09 @ 5:49PM|#
Kevin sat back, warm with the glow of having been noticed by
that most important of posters, namely Warty. He wondered,
guiltily, if Warty had big strong arms with which to hold him. He
could just imagine snuggling into Warty's manly, hairy chest, and
feeling so safe and protected there.
Kevin dropped the shades and pulled down his pants. The thoughts
were just too exciting for him to not relieve himself, right
now. In his mind, Warty looked like a shaggy Burt Lancaster,
preferably like in Seven Days in May, or even The
Train.
Lowdog|7.17.09 @ 5:54PM|#
Holy crap, I can't wait for school to get back into session so
that I can immerse myself in calculus, physics, and engineering and
can be somewhat ignorant of the absolute mess that is our
government right now.
mediageek's post both scares and angers me...
|7.17.09 @ 6:00PM|#
To MediaGeek at post number 1:
Ummm...I would not trust any article that describes the Lewin Group
as "nonpartisan."
The Lewin Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of United
Healthcare--the largest for profit health "insurer" in the
country.
The same outfit that shipped their last CEO off into the sunset
with a $1.8 BILLION compensation package.
These people are leeches--bleeding the country dry in order to make
profits--siphoning 30 cents off of every dollar they touch.
FYI--that's not my number-it's the figure that John Sheil--the chap
cited in the article as saying 120 million Americans would move
from the private, for-profits--if there was a government
option.
His reasoning?
Because the government plan--with no need to generate profits,
lower overhead and sufficient market share clout to wring better
care and lower fees out of providers--would be able to offer BETTER
coverage at about a 30% discount.
|7.17.09 @ 6:08PM|#
Because the government plan--with no need to generate
profits, lower overhead
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
|7.17.09 @ 7:25PM|#
Following up on the point raised by mediageek, I looked at the
bill myself (HR 3200). It is pretty bad. Existing coverage will be
"grandfathered"; plans that enroll new participants after the bill
takes affect will have to do so via a "Health Insurance Exchange".
There are detailed requirements in the bill for what the plans
cover and how.
Guess who runs this "exchange". And we're not supposed to call this
socialized medicine?
|7.17.09 @ 8:24PM|#
Many of these same objections were raised, in forms appropriate
for the day, when Medicare was proposed. It passed anyway, and here
we are. What we need is a wooden stake to make this very bad idea
die and stay dead. I suspect that the only (or, at least, the best)
way forward for believers in liberty is to create the closest thing
possible under present circumstances to "free-market health care,"
and then defend it vigorously in court when the government
inevitably tries to shut it down. (No, I'm not paranoid. See this:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03042009/news/regionalnews/state_slaps_dr__do_good_157907.htm)
The goal must be to have the alternative last long enough to become
established as a practical counterexample to spurious claims that
we have to "go forward" to single-payer because it is "too late to
go back" to a true, free-market approach. At some point, we will be
able to use this example to inspire legislation that will make the
world safer for free-market health care.
If anyone is working on this now, I'd be glad to give a hand and
provide any help I could. After working for over a decade in
informatics within health-care-as-we-know-it, I am extremely well
motivated to "smash the system."
|7.17.09 @ 10:10PM|#
AMERICA'S NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY!
It's official. America and the World are now in a GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
A World EPIDEMIC with potential catastrophic consequences for ALL
of the American people. The first PANDEMIC in 41 years. And WE THE
PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES will have to face this PANDEMIC with
the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed World.
STAND READY AMERICA TO SEIZE CONTROL OF YOUR NATIONAL HEALTHCARE
SYSTEM.
We spend over twice as much of our GDP on healthcare as any other
country in the World. And Individual American spend about ten times
as much out of pocket on healthcare as any other people in the
World. All because of GREED! And the PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare
system in America.
And while all this is going on, some members of congress seem
mostly concern about how to protect the corporate PROFITS! of our
GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT NATIONAL DISGRACE. A PRIVATE FOR
PROFIT DISGRACE that is in fact, totally valueless to the public
health. And a detriment to national security, public safety, and
the public health.
Progressive democrats the Tri-Caucus and others should stand firm
in their demand for a robust government-run public option for all
Americans, with all of the minimum requirements progressive
democrats demanded. If congress can not pass a robust public option
with at least 51 votes and all robust minimum requirements,
congress should immediately move to scrap healthcare reform and
request that President Obama declare a state of NATIONAL HEALTHCARE
EMERGENCY! Seizing and replacing all PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health
insurance plans with the immediate implementation of National
Healthcare for all Americans under the provisions of HR676 (A
Single-payer National Healthcare Plan For All).
Coverage can begin immediately through our current medicare system.
With immediate expansion through recruitment of displaced workers
from the canceled private sector insurance industry. Funding can
also begin immediately by substitution of payroll deductions for
private insurance plans with payroll deductions for the national
healthcare plan. This is what the vast majority of the American
people want. And this is what all objective experts unanimously
agree would be the best, and most cost effective for the American
people and our economy.
In Mexico on average people who received medical care for A-H1N1
(Swine Flu) with in 3 days survived. People who did not receive
medical care until 7 days or more died. This has been the same
results in the US. But 50 million Americans don't even have any
healthcare coverage. And at least 200 million of you with insurance
could not get in to see your private insurance plans doctors in 2
or 3 days, even if your life depended on it. WHICH IT DOES!
If President Obama has to declare a NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY to
rescue the American people from our healthcare crisis, he will need
all the sustained support you can give him. STICK WITH HIM! He's
doing a brilliant job.
THIS IS THE BIG ONE!
THE BATTLE OF GOOD Vs EVIL!
Join the fight.
Contact congress and your representatives NOW! AND SPREAD THE
WORD!
(http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/publicoption)
(http://www.actblue.com/page/healthcareheroes)
God Bless You
Jacksmith - WORKING CLASS
|7.18.09 @ 9:59PM|#
I find it oddly . . . comforting that Britneybot approves of jacksmithbot's post.
TallDave|7.19.09 @ 6:07PM|#
In Mexico on average people who received medical care for
A-H1N1 (Swine Flu) with in 3 days survived. People who did not
receive medical care until 7 days or more died. This has been the
same results in the US. But 50 million Americans don't even have
any healthcare coverage. And at least 200 million of you with
insurance could not get in to see your private insurance plans
doctors in 2 or 3 days, even if your life depended on it. WHICH IT
DOES
This person clearly has no idea what waiting times are for
specialists are in countries with socialized medicine. Any
DMV-level bureaucrat can give you a swine flu shot, but you
probably don't want him doing your orthopedic surgery.
Michael|7.19.09 @ 7:06PM|#
I think JackSmith is being paid to post on blog sites. Nobody outside of lobbying groups can be this in favor, and write this long, in adoration of government-sponsored health care.
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