2009Sep18 Update on Healthcare

This week’s poll results examine what respondents are thinking about the on-going developments in the healthcare reform discussion. The poll was not scientific and was driven by radio listeners of the syndicated Don Creech Radio Show and subscribers to its “Week in Review” email. Listen or subscribe at www.DonCreech.com.

 

The current version of healthcare reform in the Senate requires up to a $3800 penalty be charged to any citizen who cannot prove they have health insurance, do you approve of this?

Ninety percent of respondents disagreed with the proposal to tax anyone not paying for health insurance. This is flagrant social engineering and a direct impediment to personal liberty.

 

The largest segment of individuals not buying life insurance is young and single. Forcing them into the healthcare premium system is essential not for their own good but to subsidize the premiums required to care for their aging parents and grandparents.

 

Eventually, this debate will end with some system of inclusion for the young and healthy or the claims of the elderly will become so great that rationing care will be the only alternative for fiscal viability. This is the condition of most social healthcare systems in Europe and Canada which are struggling to meet increasing costs that are fast depleting national treasuries.

 

The CBO estimates that even after spending one trillion tax payer dollars that 37 million Americans under the age of 65 will remain uninsured, is this acceptable?

Only twenty percent of respondents believe this is an acceptable outcome. What the CBO estimates clearly show is that covering the uninsured is not the reason to do healthcare reform. We do not end up with an outcome that is materially improved from our current status.

 

The fundamental issue is the projected increases in costs to care for an aging population whose income and taxes will be declining while entitlement costs will be increasing. To maintain any semblance of a “balanced budget” will require that all taxpayers be assessed for the increasing medical costs of aging Boomers.

 

A secondary motivation for reform is to increase governmental control over another segment of private industry. The auto industry has been partially nationalized with no prospects of taxpayers ever being repaid the $80 billion “loan.” The mortgage market has been nationalized with the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac leaving only the FHA to fund or guaranty mortgages. This week’s latest action by Congress is to eliminate all private lending for student loans.

 

The socialist wing of the Democrat Party does not believe in capitalism. They are using all of their current power to install as much of their deferred hopes and dreams for expanded government programs as possible before another election tests the voters’ tolerance for so much loss of personal liberty.

 

Can free markets solve this problem or should the government step in with regulation?

Only twenty percent of the respondents indicated that only the government can solve the problem of the uninsured. To the extent that the government will use the Internal Revenue Service as an enforcement arm, the government can impose social policy on the unwilling.

 

The free market has to be free to provide attractive offers to prospective consumers. Much of the “freedom” has been eliminated by state and federal mandates. Not everyone has a need or desire to purchase first dollar medical coverage or, conversely, a high deductible major medical policy. The ability of the insurance industry to provide a wide variety of policy options has been largely curtailed by government mandating benefits, premiums and underwriting outcomes. Mandates have the objective of fulfilling social objectives but seldom allow for the economic survival of the provider leading to one outcome – a national single payer system, i.e. socialized medicine.

 

Do you believe that you will be able to keep your current insurance policy if the healthcare reform bill introduces a public option?

Only twenty percent of the respondents believe they will be able to keep their current coverage after the implementation of healthcare reform. Apparently, those respondents have not read HR3200 which mandates that no new private insurance policy shall be issued after the bill becomes law. Further, any change in employment or terms of current policies shall constitute cancellation requiring the individual to “opt” for the government’s plan.

 

Will the government be able to keep ongoing healthcare costs under control?

A nearly unanimous ninety percent of respondents do not believe the government will be able to keep healthcare costs under control. That should be no surprise when there are few programs at any level of government operating within budgetary limitations.

 

President Obama says that there is $450 billion in waste and fraud in the current healthcare system, should this be cleaned up before embarking on any other reforms?

Similarly, ninety percent of respondents want to see the government do its own housekeeping on known waste and fraud before committing to an even larger entitlement program. Neither Social Security, Medicare nor Medicaid programs have ever been close to the projected expenditures when proposed to the country or adopted by Congress. It is presumptuous for Congress to ask Americans to shoulder another trillion plus dollars of national debt to not solve the stated objective and with no plan to pay back the borrowed money.