This is a post by guest writer Bruce Kesler:
Democrats are delirious with glee at their opportunity to impose a national health care regime that gets us closer to their ambition of government-run universal health care.
Their launch point is the 98 page outline issued by Senator Max Baucus. Their point man is to be former Senator Tom Daschle, proposed as Secretary of Health and Human Resources, who has written of similar ambitions and is deemed to be able to wheel and deal toward that end.
Estimates of cost are in the area of $150-billion a year, and growing. Since it shares many of the aspects of Massachusetts’ plan, which is costing double estimates, similar larger real costs can be expected.
Although only about 20-25% of the 47-million who are uninsured are actually US citizens in financial or underwriting need, let’s for the sake of this exercise use the 47-million number.
At an average monthly premium cost of $158, according to a recent study of actual individual premiums, that means $7.5 billion per month, or $90-billion a year. Make that $250 a month, to include broader benefits that government typically requires in its plans, more health conditions due to guaranteed issue, and more elderly with community rating that averages their costs down while increasing costs for the younger, and you have $11.75 billion per month, or $141-billion a year.
Cut that back by even half, to eliminate benefits for illegal immigrants, for the legal ones whose sponsors are supposed to be responsible, and for those who can afford coverage but choose to go bare, and you’ve got an annual $70-billion program.
Assuming that Democrats are determined to further bust the federal budget and place us deeper in debt, paying or subsidizing the premiums of the truly needy uninsured would be cheaper than their favored schemes. All that without a major disruption of the coverage, benefits, freedom of choice of everyone else, and without creating a huge new government bureaucracy that interferes with innovation in treatments or delivery.
So, is the Democrats’ goal increasing Americans’ access to health care? Or is it increasing their own access to control over Americans, with the increased access to self-enrichment that comes from government programs?
