Bob Grise St Joseph
Two weeks ago President Obama’s biggest fan, Dennis Dalman, stated “Republicans should put up or shut up” concerning health-care reform. Apparently Dalman is not very well read. First off, Republicans and Conservative think tanks have offered many ideas to improve the affordability of healthcare and health-care insurance. Who is it that has pushed to allow interstate competition in health insurance? The Republicans. Who is it that wants pro-growth economic policies so people can get good full-time jobs that provide health insurance? The Republicans.
True John Roberts saved Obamacare – who knows why. Some say he was threatened. But Roberts didn’t proclaim it to be a good law. It isn’t. In fact Obamacare is so bad Congress just last week exempted itself from 75 percent of its cost, as the rest of us face skyrocketing premiums. Acting IRS chief Danny Werfel, who is tasked with enforcing Obamacare, told a House Ways and Means Committee hearing he doesn’t want Obamacare for himself. Wow.
Funny how Dalman calls the Republicans obstructionists because they don’t support another federal program that is already admitted to cost three times what it was originally billed to cost. “Obamacare is a train wreck” says Democrat Sen. Max Baucus. Obamacare’s IPAB is a rationing board that’s destined to fail, says Democrat Howard Dean. Many moderate Democrats are jumping ship on Obamcare. Why? Because most of us are happy with our health insurance, and the promised cost savings were a deliberately fabricated lie and because Obamacare is killing our economic recovery. This year almost all of the new jobs created were part time. More than 13,000 pages of rules and regulations already associated with Obamacare, tell the tale – it’s a nightmare for the average citizen but a bureaucrat’s dream.
The tipping point for medical cost-price inflation began after 1965 when 85 percent of the population (employed workers and the official old, poor and disabled) suddenly acquired tax-subsidized health insurance. The appearance of near-free care (the boss or government pays for it) and subsequent unrelenting demand has not been stopped in more than four decades by gatekeeper schemes says Dr. Robert W. Geist, a retired medical doctor. Obamacare is just another driver of demand, while at the same time driving down supply. Lose-lose.
Every level of government has promised too much and delivered too little. Time to get back to our roots and limit government and grow the private sector. No central authority can accomplish the functions of freely determined prices for the allocation of labor and capital. Market-based solutions are our only hope for improving our condition.