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3/23/2010
Burri: Not the time for freedom lovers to relax
As I write this, President Obama is getting set to sign ObamaCare – the Senate version of the health care “reform” bill – into law. The Senate is gearing up for a fight over that package of “amendments” passed by the House Sunday evening. And I’m trying to think of something inspiring to say about the whole thing.
I’m having a little trouble with that.
It's tempting, at a time like this, to let go: the debate was so intense for so long, and now the big vote's come and gone. Time to relax, right?
Yeah. Wrong. There's a few things we all need to remember, ObamaCare-wise.
One: even when the bill is fully implemented – if ever – it will fail to eliminate unmet needs. It will fail to wipe the scourge of scarcity from the face of our health care system. We will continue to hear stories of people needing care, but unable to get that care.
Two: that it will fail to eliminate unmet needs will not change any minds. Those who support government solutions to every problem will simply see failure as another problem for government to solve.
Those who believe in centralized power; in government-as-the-solution; in the primacy of collective force over the invisible hand will never sit back and realize that – for all their meddling, tweaking, creating and destroying – no centralized, socialized, government-led “solution” ever did what it purported to do, and neither will this one.
Three: those CBO cost estimates? They’ll turn out to be wrong. Actual costs will be far, far higher.
How can I possibly know that? Example #1: Medicare Part D. Congress passed it in 2003, partly on cost estimates of $400 billion over a 10-year period. Soon afterwards, estimates hit $532 billion. Soon after that, it went over $700 billion.
Example #2: Massachusetts, where Massacare is $47 million over budget this year alone. The cost is expected to exceed $900 million next year; citizens there pay 27% more than the national average for their health care; and the number of uninsured people has dropped…from 6% to 3%.
Four: early next year, the push to accelerate ObamaCare’s starting dates will get underway. The more power Republicans take back in November, the more true this will be.
Five: we will not, as New York Times columnist Ross Douthat suggests, find out who’s right about how government health care works (or doesn’t). Any negative outcome will simply become evidence that Big Pharma and the for-profit insurance industry still have too much influence over health care, and more reforms are needed.
That's all patently obvious. Were I a political liberal who had invested myself emotionally in ObamaCare’s success, I’m sure I’d be rationalizing it all away. But that doesn’t make it go away.
Laissez faire capitalism won’t “fix” health care either. The free market will never “eliminate unmet needs,” as I put it earlier. It won’t. In over 200 years of free-market capitalism (more or less), we haven’t done that. And we never will, no matter how small government gets.
But that’s the point. Eliminating all unmet needs – making absolutely sure that everyone has everything they need (or think they need) all the time – isn’t possible. Capitalism can’t do it. Socialism can’t do it.
But under a free, capitalist, individual-oriented society, at least we get to make our own choices. Make our own mistakes. Improve our own situations. Find a way, if we go without once, to make sure we don't go without again.
Under ObamaCare and the philosophy that created it, we have to wait for someone else to do that for us.
Lance Burri blogs regularly via his site, The TrogloPundit.
COMMENTS
House Democratic leaders have scrabbled us a million letter anagram, called it unprecedented health care reform and dared critics to prove it’s really King Lear! The logical vote was NO. But when you still believe Pres. Obama is Obi-wan Kenobi, you turn off the logic and use the Force. $1.3 trillion deficit savings? No, $1.3 trillion LESS GROWTH in the deficit. Why don’t we just give everyone a $1 million and ignore what that will do to prices?! Counting fingers and holes in the dike, forget that we only have 2 arms. Build a bigger levy, that’ll hold the river back.
timbeaux (Tue Mar 23 07:05:11 2010)
Tim, I think you're confusing using the Force with throwing darts blindfolded from a moving car.
Lance (Tue Mar 23 08:50:04 2010)
You are spot on with the analysis as always Lance. Conservatives and Libertarians see this for what it is. A massive grab for more control and power. The Dem's claim to be arguing for the needy. Unfortunately, some actually believe it. When Uncle Sam denies the radiation treatment or the hip replacement for Grandma because her "quality of life panel" makes a judgment call, it will be too late to turn back and I'm not going to bite my tongue with the I told you so. Not after so many voices of reason were out here holding warning signs. Literally. This process has been a grotesque abomination from the start.
I agree. Government caused problems are not solved by more Government. This entitlement mentality is going to make us chase a carrot off a cliff if we don't get a handle on it. Everyone can't be on the receiving end. How is that so freaking hard to understand?
MNRobot (Tue Mar 23 09:23:23 2010)
THE CARRROT IS ALREADY FALLING, AND WE ARE TOO.
emily matthews (Tue Mar 23 22:18:44 2010)
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