Thursday, July 16, 2009

Obama Health Care – a very sick idea.

Socialising 20% of your economy is not very smart.

by StFerdIII





Ideologues one and all. Leftists and Marxists are famous hypocrites – they view the world through a distorted and unbalanced lens, yet they assure themselves that they are 'nuanced' and 'moderate'. Nothing of the sort. The immoral and radical notion of 'reforming' US Health Care through government socialisation is so blatantly ridiculous and insane, that only an ideologue could possibly support such a venture. It will accomplish nothing except raise taxes, increase the debt and destroy any technological-creative impulse in a gigantic part of what should be, but already isn't, a private marketplace.

There are many things wrong with Obama-care. The premises of what ails US health care is wrong. The lie that government can control costs is wrong. The immorality of rationing and destroying innovation and personal responsibility and choice is wrong.

What ails US Health Care ?:
A simple list which does not affect all people, suffices to point out the folly of nationalising a market sector which suffers from too much socialist control:

A) Insurance companies stuck in between the consumers and providers, which affords them too much power.
B) Policies which are not portable between states and jobs.
C) Policies which have little price competition due to state regulation and price controls.
D) Lawsuits putting doctors and clinics out of business and making mal-practice insurance a huge cost factor in all insurance policies.
E) The 1000 or more regulations which exist on average in each state regulating every aspect of health insurance and care making competition almost impossible.
F) Illegals using the medical system.
G) Medicaid and Medicare – socialised health care for the poor and sick – which takes up about 50% of all health care spending but is subject to fraud, abuse and corruption totaling some $100 bn per annum.

What would a normal person looking at this mess do ? Most likely they would:

*Make policies portable across jobs and states which would immediately create price competition.
*Reform tort laws to stop malpractice lawsuits which have no merit.
*Get the insurance companies out between the consumer and supplier through real policy competition, and by letting doctors and clinics bill real costs and prices to the consumer who will then see it reflected in their insurance policy rates. Market prices are the only means to true competition and a true provisioning of quality service.
*For the poor who cannot afford a full private policy the government would give them a subsidy and they would purchase the insurance on the open market. It would be mandatory to have health insurance to get treated. Illegals would be denied health coverage excepting infants and those in critical need.

In health care as with any market, government is the problem. The issue put forward by the Obamed cult that some 40 million Americans don't have health care access is a lie. All Americans are covered by law and guaranteed access to health care. The 40 million people who don't have private insurance are composed of illegals some 20-25 millions; about 10 million who choose not to spend their money on health; and about 5-10 million poor, who are covered by Medicaid. To socialise a system to cover these groups and to transfer vast sums of money from over-taxed citizens to these people is simply criminal.

The Prophet's health care plan will have the following major deleterious consequences:

1. It will raise taxes by $ 1 Trillion per annum and raise the highest marginal tax rate to at least 52%.

2. It will increase the US deficit by $ 1 Trillion per annum – and that is after the tax increases.

3. It will destroy any innovation in pharma, drugs and health technology which currently keeps millions of people alive each year around the globe. The US is the foremost producer of new drugs and new informational technologies in health science. Destroying this sector by socialising their clients will have a long term impact on tens of millions of people.

The whole idea of socialised health is immoral. It leads to rationing, wait times, poor access, poor services, and a lack of resources. The costs always escalate and balloon out of control as people use the system feeling it is 'free'. Taxes always rise to cover such costs. Eventually the system becomes so dysfunctional that market reforms are introduced to relieve health burdens, as witnessed in places like Canada [30% private market] or France and Holland [40%].

A good way to kill the moral, juridical and economic personality is to thrust them into a socialist culture. The Prophet and friends – the most radical administration in history – are well on the way to doing that.