As Barack Obama travels across the fruited plain and sucks up all the air on every Sunday network news show—except for FOX News Sunday—attempting to repackage his plans to take over the health care industry by force of law, one thing has remained constant. According to Dr. Obama, under his “plan,” tens of millions more Americans will receive taxpayer-subsidized health care, the quality of medical care will increase, and it will all occur at no extra cost to taxpayers.
After that, he plans to walk on water.
In reality, of course, there are more than a few problems with the Obama Administration’s claims. Namely, the numbers simply do not add up. Expanding health coverage is a costly venture, and the American people are not fooled. They know they will wind up paying through the nose for this massive expansion of federal entitlements. And that these will add substantially to the national debt, which now totals some $11.8 trillion.
The House plan, which 45 million people qualify for, at an average cost of $4,700 per premium according to the National Coalition on Health Care, would add on $211.5 billion in extra costs to taxpayers every single year once fully implemented. That’s $2.1 trillion over ten years.
It doesn’t get much better even under the so-called “bipartisan compromise” legislation—that not a single Republican supports—now being floated by Montana Democrat Senator Max Baucus. Under his plan, an additional 26 million individuals would receive government-subsidized health care, which at $4,700 for a premium, adds up to $122 billion extra every year, or $1.2 trillion over ten years.
All of which will be piled atop the greatest budget deficit in human history: $1.85 trillion.
Both plans attempt to hide the unfunded entitlement costs by means of a deceptive scheme stalling fuller implementation of the public “option” on the House side, and the government-regulated co-ops on the Senate side. Each is delayed not to start until 2013. This execution is designed purely to keep the ten-year projections of each plan under the $1 trillion mark, thus providing political cover for members from more conservative districts and states.
The Baucus plan in essence attempts to deliver an ObamaCare Lite proposal that subtracts out the so-called public “option,” cutting the proposed increase of coverage by about 20 million individuals. His purpose is to find the votes necessary for Senate Democrats who are queasy about voting for what amounts to government-run socialized medicine.
In truth, they should still feel nauseous about casting Yay votes. The proposal establishes government-run ‘co-ops’ that will provide health care in place of private options. It still has a rationing board. It still requires Americans to be insured or else pay a fine. It still does not allow for competition across state lines to purchase medical insurance. It still expands Medicaid. It still increases taxes. It still has no tort reform. As noted above, it still adds to an already unsustainable debt. And, it will still ultimately result in a government-run system, no matter how much Barack Obama denies it.
Particularly devastating to both plans is that they will still inevitably result in rationing—one way or another. The American people are prospective in their outlook, and they are cautious about supporting a proposal that threatens to decrease the high quality of care they are used to receiving.
And Obama has not helped himself on this front.
Writes Dick Morris in a recent column in response to Barack Obama’s joint session of Congress address, “In his hour long speech on health care, [Obama] failed to spend even a moment rebutting the central critique of his program: His inability to provide quality medical care for 30 million new patients without any additional doctors or nurses… The result of expanding the demand for medical services without augmenting the supply of doctors or nurses must be the rationing of medical care. And rationing will inevitably take its greatest toll among the elderly, forcing them to forgo elective surgery or, if their remaining quality years are likely to be limited, to do without vital life-prolonging treatment. Inevitably, we will all have to wait many more days, weeks, months or years for care we now receive on demand.” During which time, one should add, they will die.
Another reason that both plans will result in rationing is that both contain provisions forcing insurers to take on riskier patients without charging more for the premiums. As a result, the costs will be passed on to everybody and distributed throughout the entire system.
In short, that means rates will go up. At the same time the quality of everyone’s coverage will decrease. And individuals will have no choice but to buy the watered-down plans. Soon, more will be allotted in benefits than can be collected in revenue. The program would then turn to borrowing and printing more money to fund it, as have Medicare and Social Security—a flawed approach that will bankrupt the public treasury.
And in the end, Washington will decide who gets care and who does not.
According to Rasmussen Reports, 56 percent of voters now oppose the plan, demonstrating a growing trend of opposition to the takeover. And Barack Obama’s public disapproval has sunk to the 52 percent mark for the first time in his term.
The fact is, the more Barack Obama parades around on television attempting to redesign and repackage his proposals to make them sound more appealing, the more the American people oppose him and his socialist designs. He has not deviated from the unsustainable path of socialized medicine he has chosen. He still cannot walk on water. Which is why his health care scheme is sinking like a rock.
Robert Romano is the ALG Senior News Editor.
