Posted on 03/23/2010 7:00:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In Washington, everybody knows about unintended consequences: the outcomes you fail to anticipate when you change the way something works. But there's another phenomenon that works somewhat in reverse: Preregulatory paranoia, or the fear that new rules meant to make the system better will instead produce mayhem and disaster.
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Still, the overheated claims and counterclaims about healthcare reform have produced widespread confusion about what the new legislation will actually do. Here are a few of the most overblown concerns:
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1) The government will take over one sixth of the economy.
That would be alarming if it were true. But government involvement in healthcare will increase gradually over time and remain modest, especially since there's no "public option" in the current plan that would set up a government-run insurer. If you have doubts, consider the attitude of professional investors, who would stand to lose a lot if the government took over healthcare. They don't exactly seem worried. Shares of health insurers like Aetna, UnitedHealth, Wellpoint, and Cigna—subject to the strongest new rules under reform—have outperformed the stock market over the past year.
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2) The federal debt will explode.
It might, but not because of healthcare reform. The Congressional Budget Office—which is probably the most reliable, nonpartisan number-crunching outfit in Washington—says the reforms will reduce government deficits by $143 billion through 2019, thanks to new taxes and fees and cost savings in government healthcare programs like Medicare. But opponents of the bill and powerful lobbying groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce say otherwise, and they seem to have had a stronger influence on public opinion than CBO's methodical analysis.
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3) Doctors will revolt.
Doctors don't like the current system, in which insurance companies call the shots. But instead of sweeping reform and more government involvement, they prefer gradual reform that puts more control in the hands of … doctors. In one recent survey, nearly one third of physicians said they'd consider leaving medicine if reform passes, which it now has. Doctors worry that the new rules will cut into their incomes—which may happen, eventually. But it's implausible that thousand of doctors who have dedicated years to a complex profession will simply quit. What will they do? Become accountants?
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4) Businesses will suffer.
The new rules will impose fees on businesses with more than 50 employees if their workers receive government subsidies to buy insurance in lieu of employer-provided coverage. Business groups complain that this could stunt economic growth and slow hiring. But businesses are more resourceful than that. It's true that many companies will have to absorb additional costs, which they do every year anyway when health insurance premiums go up. But well-run companies excel at solving problems.
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5) Socalized medicine is on the way.
In the Kaiser poll, 41 percent of respondents said they believe the new law would require people who already get insurance through their employer to change their coverage. But most people who already have health coverage won't have to change anything, unless they want to. The new rules will have the most direct impact on people who don't have coverage, or who don't get it through an employer. Those who fear the advent of "socialized medicine" mainly seem to worry that the current set of reforms is just Phase 1, to be followed by bigger changes that will replace doctors with bureaucrats and render individual patients even more powerless than they are now. This is supposed to happen despite the likelihood that the Democrats who supported reform will lose seats in the November elections, while Republicans who opposed reform will gain seats. It seems much more likely that after surviving the battles of the last year, the current for-profit healthcare industry will be with us for the foreseeable future.
Why does Barack Obama need a White House communications staff, when he such such an obscenely compliant media that will happily carry his water on virtually every policy matter?
Great quote, bttt.
Inadvertantly used one of my favorite puns...
This is written by a snarky liberal. Who does he think doctors are, all 30 years olds? No many are 45+ years, have made money and still can be earn living outside of their practice. Many can and will cut out if they are put in a position where their earnings do not reflect their work.
Brilliant!
The liberal mentality: Fight those damned facts with lies.
“The Congressional Budget Office—which is probably the most reliable, nonpartisan number-crunching outfit in Washington”
LOL.
The fact is that the charade of collecting taxes for four years, before any “benefits” kick in is a massive charade that people still do not understand.
The Congress is not collecting premiums for four years and banking them to pay for future benefits; the money that is collected will be spent, and when it is time to start paying for those benefits in 2914, the cries for a new funding source will be overwhelming.
Charles Krauthammer was talking about this very thing, and in his view this will drive making a National Value Added Tax (VAT) one of the major issues for the 2012 Presidential race...
The U Snews is hardly a reliable source these days. All they do is report the Obama mantra!
2914 s/b 2014...
SURE!! What could POSSIBLY be wrong with an unconstitutional fraud designed to enslave 300 million people, confiscate tax dollars for the treatment of Mexicans, increase the abortion rate and imprison anyone who disagrees??!!!
#2 The CBO can only comment on the scenario presented to them. They were no more told the truth than I can raise and fly on my own.
They're gonna steal from the Medicare fund....after I've put into it for 45 years?? and cut my benefits, too.
AND I'M STILL PAYING!!!!
USA today doing their part.
.
Peeing on our leg.
Telling us it it raining.
Yesterday there was an article with a detailed description of the process by which all of these insurance companies are going to collapse. The basis of it was two-fold:
1. The "penalty" that would be assessed by the Federal government for people who fail to buy insurance is far less than the insurance premiums many people now pay.
2. The new mandate for insurance carriers to accept all new clients regardless of pre-existing conditions eliminates almost all of the risk someone faces when they go without insurance. In fact, it turns the whole concept of "medical insurance" into a farce. This bill has created a scenario equivalent to one that allows people to drive their cars without any insurance coverage and then force an insurance company to write a policy for them AFTER they get involved in an accident.
The author of that article was already starting to advise his self-employed clients to drop their medical insurance, pay the "penalty" every year, and simply put aside the difference between the penalty and the insurance premiums in a rainy-day fund of sorts.
wow...the author just gives his predictions of the future based on his liberal bias under the guise of fact
I’m with you. And, when they are proven to be wrong will they write about that?
Insurance companies will be told by the government what products they can sell, where they can sell them, and for how much. AND the Pay Czar will dictate how much every employee of the company can be paid.
Modest involvement?
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