It's Still About Costs

Witness Massachusetts, the poster child of Democrat health reform efforts:

State regulators said yesterday that they will probably change the complex formula they use to determine how many Massachusetts residents face a tax penalty for not having health insurance, because spiraling costs are making coverage unaffordable for too many people.

I persist in believing that health care costs will continue to rise unabated unless and until individual Americans pay a majority of their medical expenses out of pocket. Until then, patients and providers alike will be spending "other people's money."

Also of interest was this nice summation from the traditionally left-leaning Washington Post, which appeared in today's Albany Times-Union:

But the long-term threat is no joke, as Obama has acknowledged many times. If he does not pivot, the country will be in serious trouble.

Why? According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis published last week, Obama's budget plan has the government spending one-quarter of the national economy (25.2 percent of gross domestic product) 10 years from now, while collecting revenue that's less than one-fifth (19.6 percent).

Such a gap isn't sustainable for any country. The United States would have to borrow so much money that in interest alone the government would be spending 4.1 percent of GDP -- compared with 1.4 percent this year.

So we should be happy about health care reform because it trims the deficit, right? Not so fast.

The President touts health reform in part because it will reduce the deficit -- according to the CBO, by $143 billion in the next 10 years.

That sounds pretty good, until you consider that Obama would need the equivalent of 70 additional health bills to undo the $9.8 trillion that his budgets will add to the deficit during the next 10 years, according to the CBO.

(Actually, it would take something like 220 health care bills of deficit reduction. The savings from health care are more like $44 billion, once you subtract $70 billion in premiums that people will pay for long-term insurance and $29 billion they will pay into the Social Security trust fund, all of which will have to be paid out later. Either way, it's pretty scary.)

I never bought that health reform was necessary before fiscal reform can take place. Health reform was a golden opportunity for fiscal reform, and Obama blew it by cutting special interest deals with big pharma and the AMA.

That's not change I can live with.