The Alternate Universes of American Healthcare

Obama and his Democrates have managed to get through Congress a healthcare bill that extends healthcare to more Americans then ever. And that's a good thing. Both Democrats and Republicans can say that extending healthcare to more Americans is a good thing.

Unfortunately, without proper fiscal management the Democratic victory will prove Pyric.
The healthcare bill imposes a huge financial burden on America. Its costs are simply unsustainable.

What Americans needed was reform. There's no reform here. There's no tort reform. There's no reform in the way healthcare is dispensed. There's no thought been given to the consequences of dropping on the states unfunded mandates that states are in no position to bear. They can barely shoulder present day debt.

The healthcare bill is little more than Congressional demagogery. How else can you describe a bill that promises the public so much and yet has so little chance of surviving the financial waters in which this country finds itself?

It's also a bill that, if looked at carefully, can be described as a joke; as a piece of political humor. Who did the Democrates paint as the great villian? Those dastardly insurance companies. And, whose stocks are shooting skywards because the bill is so great for them? The insurance companies. Of course, when it comes to winners, the pharmaceutical companies are right up there with the insurers. Following closely behind are the lawyers and the unions.

So how could the Congressional Budget Office give this bill it's stamp of approval? It seems they are bound to calculate the cost of the bill exactly as the Congress gives it to them. They've got to accept all the assumptions that the bill has written into it. For example, if the bill includes a provision that doctor's fees will be cut in half, they have no choice but to price out the bill by relying on this "fact." Forget, for a moment, that no one in government who doesn't recognize this "fact" for what it is, pure fantasy.

Benefits are of little value if they can't be sustained. Ask the UAW. One distinct possibility is that this healthcare bill will drive us down the same path taken by Greece. That country is now waiting to learn who will bail them out; the Germans or the EU. No one is leaping forward to volunteer to help them. Greece forgets that the money they're looking for ultimately must come from nations who have been a great deal more careful with their resources. Of course, we have no need for the EU or Germany. Our Congress seems to be relying on China. Now, there's a really scary thought.