Reason Writers Around Town: Shikha Dalmia on Obama's Health Care Snake Oil
President Barack Obama bizarrely argues that a Medicare-style insurance option open to everyone will cure our health care woes. But in her latest Forbes column, Shikha Dalmia argues that just as President George W. Bush concocted the connection between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein to justify the Iraq invasion, Obama is concocting an equally fantastical theory to justify a de facto government takeover of health care.
She writes:
Despite Medicare's dismal record, Obama and his comrades hold Medicare up as an example for the private sector. Why? Because between 1997 and 2006, Medicare's health spending per enrollee grew 4.6% annually while that of private plans grew 7.3%. By tapping this 2.7% difference, they argue that they can perform the triple miracle of reining in escalating health care costs, and at the same time extending health insurance to the 46 million uninsured without imposing any extra cost on the economy.
But this is 21st century snake oil…