Supporters of New Health Care Acts Disingenuous

When I hear "progressives" lauding the governments' takeover of the health insurance industry they always cite the tear-jerker aspects of the program, such as the supposed guarantee that no child will be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Aside from the absurdity of requiring an insurer to cover a loss that has already occurred, this claim is disingenuous. While a child may not be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition, plenty of children will be denied medical care for other reasons, such as further treatment being deemed futile or due to a shortage of doctors or facilities.

Supporters of the health care acts don't want to talk about how the program will be implemented and operated -- how more people will be provided better health care at a lower cost. It's obvious to me that health care rationing will be the answer. No provider of a service or commodity can (for very long) separate the supply of the service or commodity from the cost of the service or commodity. This is true of our previous health insurance and medical care systems and it is true of the new systems. The difference, though, is that our previous systems were self-rationing and the rationing of the services provided by the new systems will be controlled by some government bureaucracy.

Supporters don't want to talk about how the government is going to force people to acquire health insurance when they don't feel they need it. They especially don't want to talk about the fact that enforcement of this requirement, and the collection of the fine for non-compliance, has been assigned to the IRS. The IRS won't be able to collect fines from people they don't know exist. There are millions of people who have never filed a tax return. For people who do file returns, will there now be a proof-of-health-insurance form that must be submitted with the tax return? Will the IRS have access to our health insurance policy for verification purposes? Of course they will.

Supporters don't want to talk about how private health insurers will be quickly replaced by government provided health insurance. The government mandates will necessitate price increases. The price increases will drive people out of the market. The government will step in to cover these people at a lower price subsidized by the tax payers. As tax payers realize they are paying a higher price for health insurance and subsidizing others, they too will drop out and join the government program. And the snowball will continue down the hill getting larger and larger until we have a single-payer system for medical care.

Once the single-payer system is in place, private providers of medical care will quickly be replaced by government provided medical care. Government rationing and price controls will either drive private medical professionals out of business or force them to reduce the quality of their service. The government will recruit and train replacements who will work in government run hospitals and clinics.

If these acts are not repealed or significantly altered within the next two years we will have a medical care system like that of Britain and Canada within about ten years. Where can we go for quality health care?

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