Candidate Barack Obama painted a gloomy picture of the price of medicine in America, saying that "health care premiums have risen nearly 90% in the past six years — four times faster than wages have gone up." And he promised an overhaul that "brings down the cost of health care and reduces every family's premiums by as much as $2,500." "In the end," he said, "coverage without cost containment will only shift our burdens, not relieve them." So why, as president, is Obama pulling out all the stops, leaning hard on wavering House Democrats, to pass a plan with big cost increases? Visiting a Cleveland suburb this week, the president hatched arguably the biggest gaffe of his presidency, asserting that employers "would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000%" and that such a big reduction "means they could give you a raise." It was a flub the White House quickly had to correct; the president meant to say 3,000 dollars. But even mainstream media such as the Associated Press are joining Republicans in calling the president to task on such wild claims. AP quotes Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation as saying "it would be miraculous" if premiums went down from present levels under ObamaCare. According to AP, the president misrepresented the $3,000 figure, which comes from a November report from the Business Roundtable that "didn't consider specific legislation." On top of this comes a devastating new macroeconomic study from the Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis. It warns that "using mandates and higher taxes to force otherwise involuntary universal health insurance actually makes achieving the goal of affordable health care even harder." The study finds "that the higher initial costs are not an investment that pays off with a higher return in later years. Indeed, these front-loaded costs slow economic growth with higher inflation and higher interest rates, which overwhelm the benefits the proposal hoped to gain in later years." The bottom line: an economy with "$752 billion less worth of goods and services," $20.3 billion in annual interest increases by 2020, $755 billion added to the national debt by the same date and $76 billion more in average annual budget deficits. We must make every effort to fax, call and even personally visit every key congressman in their offices in Washington DC: Select Here SEND YOUR FAXES NOW! And what about those insurance premiums, which are supposed to drop by thousands? Citing an analysis of the Senate bill by the Congressional Budget Office, Heritage notes the option for catastrophic coverage would be eliminated by ObamaCare's mandates. With the new insurance exchanges "crowding out the employer-sponsored market" as "the individual mandate begins prodding the currently uninsured into buying coverage," there will be "an overall increase in the absolute amount of health spending on premiums (that is, private and public)." As prices go up, quality will go down. The price increases forecast by the CBO "would actually purchase a lower level of medical care" as the government finances the increased number of Medicaid enrollees, according to Center for Data Analysis calculations. How's that for change? Contrary to the way the president is advertising it, this week's by-hook-or-by-crook legislative drive to wreck the U.S. health system is not about cutting costs or covering the uninsured. It's now 100% about politics. Democrats may be in trouble this November if a medical overhaul does not become law. But if it does, they'll be forced to campaign on a tissue of lies about what their big-government health care revolution really means. Original Article |
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