The Cost-Control Illusion. Breaking down the ObamaCare claims

WSJ ^ | 3-13-2010 | WSJ

[SmartInsight]

ObamaCare's real cost-control plan boils down to this: First subsidize coverage so much that costs explode, raise taxes as much as possible to pay for it, and when that isn't enough hand power to an unelected committee to limit treatment and control prices by government order. This is what Democrats are voting for.

[SmartInsight]

In addition to the excellent summary above, the article has a lot of good details on specifics, that is very good reference material.

“The commission will then function much like similar bodies do in Europe—controlling costs by denying coverage for new technologies or patients at the end of life, or by limiting spending on certain treatments and thus creating longer waits.”

[fortheDeclaration]

check out Hugh Hewitt website. He has a email system to send letters to Blue Dogs.
http://hughhewitt.com

He also has a link to the Tim Burns, the Republican trying to take Murtha’s old seat.

Send him a contribution to send a message to the Democrats.

[snowtigger]

The commission will then function much like similar bodies do in Europe—controlling costs by denying coverage for new technologies or patients at the end of life, or by limiting spending on certain treatments and thus creating longer waits.”

IE; DEATH PANELS!!!!

[SunkenCiv]

First subsidize coverage so much that costs explode, raise taxes as much as possible to pay for it, and when that isn't enough hand power to an unelected committee to limit treatment and control prices by government order. This is what Democrats are voting for.

Thanks SmartInsight.

[peeps36]

The cost will definitely increase and the red tape will become a nightmare. I cringe at the thought of dealing with a government worker when my health is failing.

[Bigjimslade]

Won’t young workers really be funding a huge part of this? Right now most younger workers don’t buy insurance because their risk, as they see it, is low and they don’t have extra funds to spend. Some buy catastrophic insurance only and are comfortable with the risks.

Now they’ll not only be forced to buy, but to buy the plan the government dictates. This will presumably help offset the costs of forcing insurers to take on those with preexisting conditions. It will also knock down the numbers of uninsured by government force not govt. funding.

The really sad thing is that most of them are supporting this disaster because they think it’s free healthcare. The truth is they will actually be funding a huge chunk of it.

We’ve repeatedly offered healthcare to the mostly young single workers at my office and 90% balk at it even if their contribution is $75/month. They live paycheck to paycheck now and can’t even imagine putting out another $75. I don’t know what pay the government subsidies will start at for singles but they make enough that they probably won’t be eligible.

All this talk about taxing millionaires or “cadillac plans”, but aren’t we really forcing those who can least afford it to pay most of the cost?

[GailA]

Defeat Obamacare call list: List now contains the new MAYBES culled from FR posts.

PLEASE CALL! DC OFFICE LOCAL OFFICE State District

Code Red” - House Target List on Health Care

The National Republican Congressional Committee has published a target list on health care. In addition to continuing to contact the five Tennessee Democrat Congressmen, you can go http://www.votervoice.net/link/clickthrough/ext/94697.aspx to contact some of these targets. Much of the talk following Obama’s announcement has focused on how to defeat this second bill through reconciliation, but that is misleading because the first step to defeating Obamacare is not by concentrating on defeating the “fixer” bill but by defeating the Senate bill in the House when it goes to the floor for an up-or-down vote on Thursday, March 18th.

Rep. Lincoln Davis 202-225-6831 Columbia office: 931-490-8699
Rep. Jim Cooper 202-225-4311 Nashville office: 615-736-5295
Rep. Bart Gordon 202-225-4231 Murfreesboro office: 615-896-1986
John Tanner (202) 225-4714, Union City, (731) 885-7070, Jackson Phone: (731) 423-4848, Millington (901) 873-5690 TN (MAYBE)
Rep. Steve Cohen 202-225-3265 Memphis office: 901-544-4131
Harry Mitchell (202) 225-2190 (480) 946-2411 AZ 5th District
Gabrielle Giffords (202) 225-2542 (520) 881-3588 AZ 8th District
Ann Kirkpatrick (202) 225-2315 (928) 226-6914 AZ 1st District
Jerry McNerney (202) 225-1947 925-833-0643 CA 11th District
John Salazar 202-225-4761 970-245-7107 CO 3rd District
Jim Himes (202) 225-5541 (866) 453-0028 CT 4th District
Alan Grayson (202) 225-2176 (407) 841-1757 FL 8th District
Bill Foster (202) 225-2976 630-406-1114 IL 14th District
Baron Hill 202 225 5315 812 288 3999 IN 9th District
Mark Schauer (202) 225-6276 (517) 780-9075 MI 7th District
Gary Peters (202) 225-5802 (248) 273-4227 MI 9th District
Dina Titus (202) 225-3252 702-256-DINA (3462) NV 3rd District
Carol Shea-Porter (202) 225-5456 (603) 743-4813 NH 1st District
Tim Bishop (202) 225-3826 (631) 696-6500 NY 1st District
John Hall (202) 225-5441 (845) 225-3641 x49371 NY 19th District
Bill Owens (202) 225-4611 (315) 782-3150 NY 23rd District
James Matheson Toll-Free Number 1 (877) 677-9743 (202) 225-3011Mike Arcuri (202)225-3665 (315)793-8146 NY 24th District
Dan Maffei (202) 225-3701 (315) 423-5657 NY 25th District
Earl Pomeroy (202) 225-2611 (701) 224-0355 ND At-Large District
Steven Driehaus (202) 225-2216 (513) 684-2723 OH 1st District
Mary Jo Kilroy (202) 225-2015 (614) 294-2196 OH 15th District
Zach Space (202) 225-6265 (330) 364-4300 OH 18th District
Kathy Dahlkemper (202) 225-5406 (814) 456-2038 PA 3rd District
Patrick Murphy (202) 225-4276 (215) 826-1963 PA 8th District
Christopher Carney (202) 225-3731 (570) 585-9988 PA 10th District
Paul Kanjorski (202) 225-6511 (570) 825-2200 PA 11th District
John Spratt (202) 225-5501 (803)327-1114 SC 5th District
Tom Perriello (202) 225-4711 (276) 656-2291 VA 5th District
Alan Mollohan (202) 225-4172 (304) 623-4422 WVA 1st District
Nick Rahall (202) 225-3452 (304) 252-5000 WVA 3rd District
Steve Kagen (202) 225-5665 (920) 437-1954 WI 8th District

Bart Stupak (202) 225 4735 MI (MAYBE)
Brian Baird (202) 225-3536, Vancouver, (360) 695-6292. Olympia, (360) 352-9768, (MAYBE)
senator mark begich (202) 224-3004 toll free. (877) 501 - 6275 just became a MAYBE
Jason Altmire 202-225-2565, Aliquippa, 724-378-0928,
Natrona Heights, 724-226-1304 (MAYBE)

On the Bubble (Major developments from the “yes” and “no” columns in the House)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2467046/posts

Congressional Dems on Twitter
http://www.arrghpaine.com/congressional-dems-on-twitter

[GailA]

Health Reform’s Hidden Victims Young people and seniors would pay a high price for ObamaCare.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306303720472842.html

[DrC]

“Won’t young workers really be funding a huge part of this? “

It’s a “triple whammy.” Young workers already pay for Medicare and SS for today’s seniors through payroll taxes. This 15.3% cut severely impairs their ability to afford their own health insurance, so an increasing number go bare (the highest rate of uninsured is among young adults 18-30).

The new plan will force them to buy coverage without any corresponding reduction in their payroll taxes (some will get subsidies for their coverage if they have low incomes but few working age adults will have incomes low enough to qualify for 100% subsidies, so the individual mandate inevitably will cost most of them more than the current system does).

We already face an $89 trillion mountain of unfunded obligations for Medicare and SS. The new entitlement will not only add to this mountain, it will impair our ability to address the existing mountain by diverting “savings” that amount to 10% of annual Medicare spending into bankrolling health reform instead of using the savings to knock down the $89 trillion obligation we already face.

Thus, today’s youngsters either will have to face a punishing increase in taxes over their working lives to fill this gap OR they will discover that when it gets time for their retirement, Medicare and/or SS will have been slashed drastically (by as much as 40%). Thus, unlike their parents and grandparents, they will have spent a lifetime forced to contribute to a system that won’t be able to take care of them in retirement nearly as generously as the generations that preceded them.

Millennials OUGHT to be among the loudest voices opposing this reform. Sadly, it was the strong support of young voters that put Obama into office and while their enthusiasm has certainly diminished, it is the group still most loyal to this president and his destructive social policy agenda.

[lightman]

today’s youngsters either will have to face a punishing increase in taxes over their working lives to fill this gap OR they will discover that when it gets time for their retirement, Medicare and/or SS will have been slashed drastically (by as much as 40%). Thus, unlike their parents and grandparents, they will have spent a lifetime forced to contribute to a system that won’t be able to take care of them in retirement nearly as generously as the generations that preceded them.

And no small part of this demographic problem was caused by today's youngsters' grandparents who aborted a whole generation.

A conservative estimate of 2 million abortions/year since Roe v. Wade would mean at least 38 million more persons paying into the SS system (19 years, from 1973 to 1992--those now 18 and over).

[DrC]

“at least 38 million more persons paying into the SS system”

I’d love to see a credible analysis of this. There’s no doubt Social Security and Medicare’s fiscal tsunami would not be nearly as large were the number of workers paying into the system increased by one-third. What I don’t know is whether this would completely eradicate all the unfunded liabilities or merely cut them in half etc.

[Jim Noble]

“The commission will then function much like similar bodies do in Europe - controlling costs by denying coverage for new technologies or patients at the end of life, or by limiting spending on certain treatments and thus creating longer waits.”

Long before we get there, the existing hospitals and medical practices will collapse.

There's no evidence - none whatsoever - that these idiots can just "take over" and expect that everything is going to work as before. It won't.

Most hospitals have either negative margins, or margins so small that survival is in doubt. ALL primary care practices are severely undercapitalized.

If the Senate bill passes, in 6-12 months the entire system will be in severe crisis.

The dirty little secret is that the monstrosity outlined in the Senate bill will never come to pass - because the existing system will be destroyed long before the new one is supposed to come into effect.

[SmartInsight]

“Won’t young workers really be funding a huge part of this? Right now most younger workers don’t buy insurance because their risk, as they see it, is low and they don’t have extra funds to spend.”

NO — Actually MORE people won’t buy insurance, because it costs a lot less to pay the fine and they will buy insurance ONLY if and when they get really sick, because they can’t be denied coverage for preexisting condition. So for ALL healthy people it’s a lot more cost effective to NOT buy insurance. So MOST of the insured people will be really sick people so there will be no way to pay for their medical care.