Health Care

After 60 years of failed attempts to deliver on the fantasy of reduced costs and improved access and quality through socialized health care, the British are throwing up their hands in defeat.  According to the New York Times, the Brits are doing an about-face and moving to “decentralize” the government run system that was the oft praised model by the proponents of ObamaCare.  

During the ObamaCare debate the Democrats vehemently rejected the notion that their mandate that every American buy health insurance or pay a penalty was a new tax.  When ABC’s George Stephanopoulos suggested the mandate appeared to fit the definition of a tax, Barack Obama burst out, “I absolutely reject that notion.”  Obama infamously promised not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $200,000; $250,000 for couples. 

Well, Nancy Pelosi did say of ObamaCare, “We have to pass it so you can find out what’s in it.” As Americans sift through the thousands of pages, their stomachs are starting to turn. 

In the battle over health care the Democrats’ great advantage was successfully identifying themselves with the plight of thirty three million uninsured Americans.  When Republicans advanced their own plan to the Congressional Budget Office it was shown to extend coverage to a mere three million people.  For the remainder of the debate the Democrats - greatly aided by the media - used this disparity as a stick to relentlessly beat Republicans for their “callous indifference” to the uninsured.

Attorney General John Suthers joined 13 other state Attorneys General against the federal government, challenging the massive new health care legislation (captioned the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”).  The centerpiece of the legislation, and of the lawsuit, is the so-called “individual mandate,” under which all Americans will either have to obtain health insurance or be subjected to a federal tax that by 2016 will equal $750 a year or 2% of your income, whichever is higher.

“We have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.”

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, March 9, 2010

According to a study conducted by the Associated Press, health care insurance premiums under ObamaCare for younger adults “would likely climb by 17 percent on the average” as a result of the mandated cost shift within the legislation disproportionately to the younger population.  The AP says this could mean as much a $500 more per year for Americans in their twenties and thirties, and would have significant economic consequences.