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Train Wreck Ahead
Townhall.com ^ | May 1, 2013 | John Stossel

Posted on 05/01/2013 6:09:30 AM PDT by Kaslin

Most Americans -- even those who are legislators -- know very little about the details of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, so-called Obamacare. Next year, when it goes into effect, we will learn the hard way.

Many people lazily assume that the law will do roughly what it promises: give insurance to the uninsured and lower the cost of health care by limiting spending on dubious procedures.

Don't count on it.

Consider just the complexity: The act itself is more than 906 pages long, and again and again in those 906 pages are the words, "the Secretary shall promulgate regulations ..."

"Secretary" refers to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. Her minions have been busy. They've already added 20,000 pages of rules. They form a stack 7 feet high, and more are to come.

Our old health care system was already a bureaucratic and regulatory nightmare. It had 16,000 different codes for different ailments. Under our new, "improved" system, there will be more than a 100,000.

Government likes to think regulations can account for every possibility. Injured at a chicken coop? The code for that will be Y9272. Fall at an art gallery? That means you are a Y92250. There are three different codes for walking into a lamppost -- depending on how often you've walked into lampposts. This is supposed to give government a more precise way to reimburse doctors for treating people and alert us to surges in injuries that might inspire further regulation.

On Government-Planned World, this makes sense. But it will be no more successful than Soviet central planning.

Compare all that to a tiny part of American medicine that is still free-market: Lasik eye surgery.

Its quality has improved, while costs dropped 25 percent. Lasik (and cosmetic surgery) are specialties that provide a better consumer experience because they are a market. Patients pay directly, so doctors innovate constantly to please them. Lasik doctors even give patients their cellphone numbers.

President Obama didn't kill American free-market health care. It began dying during World War II, when government imposed wage and price controls. At first, companies said, "Great, stability!" But then they realized that they could not attract better workers without raises. So companies got around the rules, as companies do. They gave "benefits," like health insurance.

Government then distorted the market further by giving employer-based health insurance better tax treatment than coverage you buy yourself.

But employer-based insurance is nuts. Many workers feel locked into their jobs. Company insurance largely destroyed the health care free market, since employees rarely shop for the best service at the lowest price.

Now Obamacare may kill what's left of that market.

Maybe we will soon be like Canada, where some people wait years for treatment. A producer from my TV show went to a Canadian town where the town clerk pulls names out of a box and then phones people to say: "Congratulations! You get to see a doctor this month!"

But there is at least one area where Canada offers cutting-edge, life-saving technologies. Unfortunately, to get this care, you have to meow or bark. Veterinary care is still handled by the market. Providers innovate or go out of business.

Markets find ways to make things better and cheaper. Obamacare often forbids that. For example, it requires that every ITAL) insurance policy cover preventive care and "breastfeeding support." It insists that mammograms and colonoscopies be provided without any deductible.

It's tempting to believe that such rules prevent illness and save money, but there is little evidence they will. Some people will undergo invasive procedures that shorten lives instead of extending them. Some of us want those tests; some don't. Government controlled medicine means we all get them and pay for them, regardless of whether we want them. Government control kills consumer choice.

Lucky Lasik and cosmetic surgery patients! Their treatments are better in part because government doesn't consider them important enough to subsidize and regulate. If only government would neglect the rest of health care! Then we'd have better service and better care at lower cost.

And we'd have choices.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 0carenightmare; johnstossel; kathleensebelius; obamacare; stossel

1 posted on 05/01/2013 6:09:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
President Cloward-Piven's only goal is to overwhelm the system so he can implement fundamental change.

Some idiots thought "fundamental change" meant something good.

2 posted on 05/01/2013 6:10:49 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Islam is a religion of peace, and Moslems reserve the right to behead anyone who says otherwise.)
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To: Kaslin

Obamacare is the modern tower of babel.


3 posted on 05/01/2013 6:25:46 AM PDT by 2001convSVT (Going Galt as fast as I can.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Some idiots thought “fundamental change” meant something good.”

They were led to believe that anything would be better than Bush. That’s how pathetic their little minds are. Their mush is SO malleable that they go for the “anything but”. That’s what they have in Obama and they still don’t know what it has meant, what it means now and what it WILL mean in the not so distant future.


4 posted on 05/01/2013 6:28:12 AM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

If you’re taught discontent from the time you were born,
and this teaching is generational to 4 generations,

and “change” will be seen as “better”.


5 posted on 05/01/2013 6:28:41 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

He said “fundamentally change,” but he didn’t specify from what, to what. That’s the problem with language: people insert whatever meaning they wish.


6 posted on 05/01/2013 6:57:28 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: rarestia

It’s called psy-ops.


7 posted on 05/01/2013 7:04:07 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Islam is a religion of peace, and Moslems reserve the right to behead anyone who says otherwise.)
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To: Kaslin
Government likes to think regulations can account for every possibility. Injured at a chicken coop? The code for that will be Y9272. Fall at an art gallery? That means you are a Y92250. There are three different codes for walking into a lamppost -- depending on how often you've walked into lampposts. This is supposed to give government a more precise way to reimburse doctors for treating people and alert us to surges in injuries that might inspire further regulation.

Uh, no. It's to give trial lawyers handy ways to search injury lists for grounds for class action suits.

8 posted on 05/01/2013 7:09:42 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (An economy is not a zero-sum game, but politics usually is.)
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To: Carry_Okie
This will be a disaster...cost trillions...and will destroy our economy as jobs will go away to cheaper locals..you will see our big name companies moving out of the country or being bought by foreigners as the growth will be outside the USA....the USA will fall into a third world status..with high unemployment and most people will work for the government...high taxes for those that don´t...socialism does not work...it will destroy our country...and this is socialism....but when you get your freebies from the government..you will always vote for the guy who will promise you more and more...
9 posted on 05/01/2013 7:20:52 AM PDT by Youngman542012
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To: Carry_Okie

Class actions suits in where only these lawyers benefit from


10 posted on 05/01/2013 7:25:27 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

The key is to watch how the Washington pols manage to get out of it. It’s the their #1 priority right now.


11 posted on 05/01/2013 7:29:18 AM PDT by AppyPappy (You never see a massacre at a gun show.)
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To: equaviator

Based on McCain’s current behavior, I wonder if America would be much different if he had been elected instead...


12 posted on 05/01/2013 10:06:45 AM PDT by FatherFig1o155 (Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil. -- Thomas Paine)
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To: FatherFig1o155

A little bit late for that, FatherFig1o155.


13 posted on 05/01/2013 12:05:11 PM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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To: equaviator

I realize that.

My point is that we would probably be seeing much of the same crap, just via a different hack politician.

We’d still be fighting the same battles...


14 posted on 05/01/2013 2:36:37 PM PDT by FatherFig1o155 (Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil. -- Thomas Paine)
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To: FatherFig1o155

McCain is not even half-black. There is very little the two of them have in common. Think about it.


15 posted on 05/01/2013 4:05:10 PM PDT by equaviator (There's nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.)
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