I don’t want to get into debating the recent health care bill. Frankly, I am sick of it. It has been an exercise of watching Dumb and Dumber in an argument without any humor. However, I do want to point out my big sticking point to the plan: costs. The Republican portion of the Joint Economic Committee were able to quantify how the government severely underestimates costs for medical programs. This happens for every area of the government, but it has bigger consequences for health care when you consider the government has almost $40,000,000,000,000 in unfunded medical bill already. That obscenely big number with all the zeros is $40 Trillion. As a point of reference, our entire federal debt along with the value of all the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange is only $36 Trillion.
Also, a note on the recently passed Massachusetts health care bill. It is already exceeding cost predictions, and it would be worse if not for the direct federal subsidy that found its way to Springfield (the capital of Mass., not Homer Simpsons hometown). Even the Democratic Treasurer for the State of Massachusetts was against the bill because of cost escalation. Tim Cahill claims the economic costs for the Mass. plan would be higher except the Federal government was propping up the plan to ensure passage of the national plan.
Tip of the hat to Reason Magazine.
Again, I don’t want to get political here, but the costs of this plan will be substantially higher than projected. The government’s record on this is very clear and consistent.