Healthcare Reform: A Huge Misdiagnosis

This week marked six months since Congress passed the healthcare reform bill in what has become all-too-typical legislative chicanery. Those in power crafted a mammoth piece of legislation and rammed it through Congress under a dire sense of emergency. Insisting on time enough to read the bill was dismissed as dangerous and crazy in a time of crisis. We were told that if we really wanted to see what was in the bill, we would have to pass it first. I cannot imagine the founding fathers intended for Congress to legislate in this manner. I would think if a Member is not absolutely certain the entire legislation meets Constitutional muster, the default vote should be "no" in accordance with our oath of office.

But now that Congress has had six months to read the new law, there is a significant amount of buyer's remorse on Capitol Hill. The more constituents learn about the law, the more angry they become. 60% of Americans are now said to be in favor of repealing the entire thing. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to repeal a law than to pass a bill.

I wrote a while back about the egregious provision to require businesses to issue 1099s for all transactions over $600 as a way to partially pay for it. I have cosponsored legislation to fix this issue, yet this is just the tip of the iceberg.

First of all, in spite of the administration repeating over and over that this legislation would not increase costs for Americans, they are now saying they knew all along that it would. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that American families will see their premiums rise by an average of $2100 by 2016. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the cost of compliance is forcing some insurers to increase premiums by up to 20% as soon as next year!

Also, in spite of repeated claims from the administration that we could all keep our plans and doctors if we liked them, the administration's own officials are now predicting that won't be true for up to 117 million Americans who will lose their current plans. Major insurers are also dropping child-only plans because of mandates and price-fixing on such policies, leaving parents with fewer choices for their children, not more.

In addition, in spite of claiming this law would contain government costs, not increase them, administration actuaries now predict it will increase healthcare spending by over $300 billion. This additional spending comes along with doctor shortages, fewer choices and more taxes. Perhaps worst of all, increases in labor costs because of health insurance mandates are discouraging employers from hiring new workers and even triggering more layoffs.

Anyone with a basic understanding of Austrian economics could have predicted the unintended consequences of these new healthcare policies. Central planning never increases choices and quality or cuts costs as promised. Price controls and government mandates always create artificial scarcity. Healthcare is not a right, nor a privilege. It is a product, like food or clothing. As with any good or service, the free market regulation of supply and demand provides the optimum quality to the maximum number of people. Once we realize the problems we are trying to solve today were created by government intervention beginning in the 1960's, we can begin to put patients and doctors back in control of healthcare, rather than third party oligopolies and government bureaucrats. The sooner, the better.

Don’t forget about the part of making insures have at least 80% of premiums go to medical expenses.

While this may sound fair to you, I point out that charities have this very 80% rule, i.e., no more than 20% admin etc.

The only way charities accomplish that is by using almost all volunteer workers.

So basically, there will be no more insurers shortly, other than the gov.

Only one point of disagreement with Paul; there are no unintended consequences. The deleterious effects of Obamacare are completely intentional; Obama wants to thoroughly wreck private healthcare, leading to complete nationalization within a few years.

Costs will skyrocket, consumer options will recede, and sooner rather than later we’ll be seeing multibillion dollar insurance company bailouts. Obamacare ensures that “private” insurers can’t possibly operate profitably, and a private company can’t operate in the red forever. Faced with imminent bankruptcy, they’ll have no choice but to accept public money - which will then be used as a pretext for complete takeover. Again, none of this is unplanned.

Well done. You get it. Bears repeating. BTTT

Misdiagnosis my aunt Fannie, it's exactly what the fascists that control the democrat party have been working towards ever since the first FDR term, a democrat eugenics program intended to create a permanent caste system in this country with only those selected to be a part of the fascist nobility allowed to rise above what is now the lowest rung of the middle class ladder.

Look over the welfare plantations and the mass murder factories designed by, run by, and funded by the democrat fascists and you see the skeleton they're planning to flesh out and apply to the entire population. Rights? Forget it, your rights are now subject to decisions by various panels that decide whether you're useful to the party and have rights or useless to the party and don't even have the right to remain alive. The democrat party has made human sacrifice and mass murder the centerpieces of their vision of the future since at least the 1930s and now that they've murdered over fifty million infants (mostly infants from minorities Margret Sanger singled out as targets way back in the twenties) they have no intention of stopping until they eliminate every group they think is substandard or unmanageable.

Every major foundation that has made large and regular contributions to the democrat fascist party also subscribes to the basic eugenics agenda spelled out by the democrat fascist nobility in the twenties and thirties. They may have changed their name over time, but they're the same wealthy foundations and they have the same goals, the eradication of those humans they do not want to be a part of their ideal fascist state. The entire academic infrastructure in this country has become nothing less than the recruiting and rewards arms of the democrat fascist party leaving every pretense of true scholarly independence far behind. Unless we destroy the democrat fascist party as a force in this nation we are destined to see the rise of a totalitarian State that a Hitler or Stalin would envy. Not the usual one man rule, but rule by a fascist nobility the likes of which hasn't been seen since the collapse of Turkey as the Islamic Caliphate.

In another article someone said the democrat party is portraying the upcoming election as a right wing religious war. For the sakes of our children and grandchildren, it better be a religious war because the Secular Humanists aren't taking prisoners. They're sorting through lists of their enemies and making lists of ways to kill them with State Sponsored Kindness through their health care system.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.