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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Ben Shapiro :: Townhall.com Columnist
Myths, Lies and Stupidity About Health Care
by Ben Shapiro
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President Barack Obama's health care plan, we are told, will spend $1 trillion over the next 10 years. But since trillion is the new billion, Americans aren't supposed to worry about that.

Obama's health care plan will cause employers to stop providing private health insurance for millions of employees and instead shift employees to public care. But Obama says that government is the best arbiter of your health, so Americans aren't supposed to worry about that.

Obama's health care plan, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will add only 16 million of the 46 million uninsured to the rolls of the insured. But Obama says that's an improvement, so Americans aren't supposed to worry about that.

Here's something we should worry about: Who are the current uninsured for whom all of us are supposed to sacrifice our current health care plans? And should the other 300 million of us turn to government care just to help those 46 million?

Here's a quick profile of those who are uninsured. Ten million of the uninsured are illegal immigrants -- which, by the way, doesn't mean they don't get health care. Walk into virtually any emergency room in California and illegal immigrants are the bulk of the population. Education costs and health care costs for illegal immigrants compose between 16.4 percent and 20.5 percent of California's budget deficit.

Liberal commentators are already urging that Obama's nationalized health care plan cover illegal immigrants. Ezra Klein of the Washington Post suggests that a failure to include illegal immigrants in the new health care redesign would create unemployment among U.S. citizens; businesses would not be forced to pick up the health care tabs for illegal immigrants and would therefore hire them at greater rates. This is undoubtedly true. But the solution is to prosecute businesses that hire illegal immigrants -- or, better yet, not to require employers to cover employees. Only liberals would use employer malfeasance as an excuse to sacrifice workers' current insurance plans.

Another 9 million "uninsured" have household incomes of above $75,000. That's 3.4 times the federal poverty standard for a family of four. For a married couple, that's 6.9 times the federal poverty standard. Some of these people – 30 percent -- are just temporarily without health insurance for six months or less. Others voluntarily avoid health insurance, even if they can afford it. And that's a perfectly reasonable position -- many people worry less about paying for the occasional visit to the doctor than about paying the monthly premiums. In essence, the Obama plan would force insurance on these people and force public insurance on the rest of us.

And then there are "12 million uninsured Americans … eligible for Medicaid and the State Children's Health insurance program -- but they haven't signed up," according to Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute and author of The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care. Again, voluntary behavior is voluntary. It's not an excuse for government involvement.

So, to sum up, of those 46 million "uninsured," a solid 31 million are uninsured in ways that require no fix from the federal government. That leaves 15 million uninsured unaccounted for. A nationalized health care plan of the sort Obama proposes therefore shifts health care for literally 95 percent of the population on behalf of 5 percent of the American population -- 5 percent who, like illegal immigrants, receive emergency care under federal law.

The media and Obama have portrayed the American health system as a system in crisis. They point to skyrocketing premiums -- the cost of a family policy is now $1,000 per month for employers. Obama says, "One out of every five dollars we earn will be spent on health care in a decade." Premiums for family coverage have risen 78 percent since 2001. And the government programs Medicare and Medicaid will comprise a huge chunk of the federal budget in ten years, more than any other government expenditure.

Why these exponentially higher costs? Because of increased government involvement in the health care system. State regulations have decreased market flexibility by requiring that insurers cover unhealthy individuals at lower-cost and requiring that insurers cover certain hospitals and doctors. The federal and state governments have required that health care providers care for individuals without reimbursement – which means escalating costs for those who do pay. And both federal and state health care subsidization programs have encouraged health care providers and insurance to raise costs.

The answer is more of a free market, not less of one. The answer is competition between insurers, not government monopoly. The answer is a private system, not a public one.

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About The Author
Ben Shapiro is a regular guest on dozens of radio shows around the United States and Canada and author of Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House.
 
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Employer-base health coverage
I agree that gov't based healthcare is a road to disaster. Yet, I've never understood why health coverage is connected to one's job. What would car insurance be like if you could only get reasonably priced coverage through your employer (which we all pay anyway through reduced salaries and wages). How many people are "health insurance slaves" bound to their existing jobs, afraid to leave because they won't be able to get coverage? I work for a small family-owned business that is struggling to make ends meet and simply can't afford to provide health coverage like our big corporate competitors can...and with a tax write-off to boot. There should be real competition in the health care industry and anybody who chooses to recieve health care benefits from their employer should be taxed as ordinary income because that is in effect what it is. (Though in reality, I think the REAL solution is to abolish the income tax altogether and institute the FairTax in its place!)

Let The Mob Run The Government

Liberals are complete idiots when it comes to economics.

So, some will give their money! HA!

Yes, that will pay for the ~800,000 doctors to treat ~305mn people and the untold amount of money that doctors have to pay for med-mal insurance.

No country will loan us money, gold is at a premium, and ink for the Federal Reserve is running low.

Personally, I know of several doctors, who will set up practice in other countries or medical ships. Heck! I know of a private clinic in a posh area of Southern Mexico where US doctors have clinics because the treatments, which have been prove successful, have been denied by the FDA.

And, now we are supposed to believe that ObamaCare will pay when the CBO, "Pay-Go", and nonparisan think tanks say that it will not.

Read about the "Slow Burn Theory" by Catherine Austin Fitts, who predicts that on a 1 to 10 scale as to whether we will experience another Great Depression is a low 3.

Try reading Gerald Celente.

And, peruse http://www.williamhenry.net/

Both Parties are corrupt and have acted unconstitutionally.

Let the Mob run the government because it will do so effectively and let the government run the Mob because it will f*ck everything up.

When New Hampshire wants to cut taxes across the board and Vermont wants to seceed, you have to wonder whatever happened to the Southern Strategy.

The Republic of Texas, anyone?

Follow the Money
Two or three years ago GM, Ford and Chrysler struck a deal with the UAW whereby the Union would receive something like 40 billion dollars and take over responsibility for future health care costs.

Call me crazy, call me paranoid, whatever; my suspicion at the time was that the UAW would try to push the expense onto the government and keep the money as a windfall.

If my suspicion was correct, then that's what is driving Obama's health care plan and the 46 million uninsured is just a distraction.

If the legislation included provisions to eliminate a windfall to the UAW or anyone else holding a reserve for future health care costs, I predict that the push for passage would wither and die.




Health care
All anyone needs to do is look at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its health care "reform", designed in part by Ted Kennedy. As a small business owner employing about 100 temporary employees in MA, I have seen first hand the disaster that is government mandated health insurance. It is a burden to the employer, and a huge burden to our employees. A perfect example is that we were penalized for not providing coverage to an employee who worked ONE DAY in the calendar year, and is employed full time as a Teamster with better benefits than I have. It amazes me that anyone could believe the Federal government could run anything - it has proven to be expensive and ineffective at best. The other thing about health insurance reform is that it is being debated by people who do not pay anything for their insurance - we do. It's easy to play fast and loose with someone else's money, especially when you won't be affected. Right, Senator Kennedy?

Obama Care
Obama is being totally dishonest when he claims if you like your healthcare you can keeps it. He knows full well that the estimates of the government plan show that his plan will cost approximately $250 per family less a month. Of course employers will jump to their plan. Insurance companies will not be able to compete with the government. If the government has a shortfall they can easily keep the premiums the same and make up for the shortfall by adding a new tax or raising an existing tax. There will be no competition. Obama knows exactly what he is doing. Within a few years all will be on the government medical plan, no competition and no way to appeal when the government decides that you should not get care that you need. Anyone who cannot see the dishonesty here is a fool.

Willis in NC:
You raise the important point that no one, not even correct thinkers like Ben Shapiro, is raising.

The fact is that the tax deduction for health care benefits is available only to corporations and not to individuals. Health care insurance would be much more affordable (and totally portable!) if one quick vote by congress and one stroke of Hoosey's pen would give that tax deduction to all the people. Then you, I, and Ben Shapiro could ban together for group rates and save more money.

Oh, and make that tax deduction a tax credit, and watch the health insurance rolls swell!

Oh Diane
How could you be so suspicious of the One, you have to know that he's the Norman Bates of our time..'why he wouldn't even hurt a fly. : )

We'd better hit the phones, faxes etc and hammer those elected fools while we can..we should remind them we are watching and 2010 is just around the corner. I have a theory that as the days wear down to Nov. 2010, the DemonRATS are going to be starting to sweat and worry about their jobs..personally I think we need a thorough house cleaning, cull the herd

Willis..FAIR TAX works for me.
in both partys.


And it will get worse...
...if Obama gets his way. For a refreshing dose of Obama-bashing, go here http://www.theblacksphere.net! You will laugh your butt off!

more hope and change lies
Welcome to the 'new' America, where truth and reality mean nothing. People will find out soon enough that the grass is not greener on the hope and change side.

Less than 15 million
A number of those 15 million that Shapiro cited as being the real number of uninsured have to be young enough to join the military.

The military will give them absolutely free health care.

Myths, Lies and Stupidity
Are what got the Sail Eared Simpleton elected in the first place.

Willis & Shrinque in NC
You're both sort of on the track, but be careful of what you wish for. Willis, it's true the employer gets the deduction for the premium expense, but an employee receives a "benefit" without taxation (using Shapiro's example, up to $12k per year for a family). What's out of whack with our current system is the incentive is greater, or of higher benefit, for those with higher incomes because they're in a higher tax bracket. The better, or more expensive the benefit, the more the tax break for them (no incentive to shop wisely).

Shrinque, giving the purchase decision and tax deduction to individuals will have no effect on the cost of insurance. It will, however, result in people making different choices in the types of plans they choose. In most cases, people would be more likely to choose the lowest cost plans they are comfortable with. Besides, how much would you have to earn, before taxes, to end up with the $1k per month family premium cited in the article (btw, premiums vary greatly by region).

What we all have to watch out for is the Dems are talking about taxing the value of benefits (waiving the taxation for unions, of course). The last threshold I heard was $100k for individuals and $200k for couples/families. Sounds like "rich" is getting closer to the middle class because estimates conclude this will only generate around $136 billion of the needed $1.6 trillion.

Health Care?
Why don't we put all uninsured the government is so worried about on government insurance? It is the cheapest and one of the best in the nation. The government simply pays the premiums. It would cost far less than what Obama wants and it would give these people the insurance they say they need.

Of course, that would also keep the government out of the health care business and out of our business and it would prevent the creation of a new government agency. And that is the real reason they want the health care program.

Willis
"Yet, I've never understood why health coverage is connected to one's job."

Thank FDR who froze wages so that the only reward option left to employers was to add benefits.

Free-Market has failed
"The answer is more of a free market, not less of one". WRONG!

The free market has not worked. Concern for profits over people..Premiums go up, co-pays go up, insurance companies only insure the healthy and drop you or raise your premiums if you get seriously sick. IN addition they look for loopholes not to pay. How will free-markets fix this?

Now the People making over $75K a year you elect not to have insurance is never reasonable. Why should they have to choose their health or college or bills? What about the people that are unemployed and do not have insurance and get sick, no what? What about the illegal immigrants and they get seriously ill, do we take care of them? if so, who pays?

This is a matter of human rights. People should be covered and not have to make choices. Free-markets cannot do this. Nor is it their responsibility. The government has to get involved becasue it is a human right, not a market.

Good stuff
This hysteria is similar to global warming - a problem that is overhyped. The left continues to use a "save the children" argument when, with SCHIP, there is no legitimate reason for any child in the U.S. to be without health coverage. And instead of scolding insurance carriers, let's get at the real supply-and-demand problem. Reduce AMA restrictions on medical training, etc.

Stedes
So you are saying when someone, maybe an illegal invader, gets sick, you are obligated to pay for it? RIGHT, pay away.

Insurance is legalized gambling. The details are more involved than I have the endurance to write about. Buy catastrophic ins and pay for routine care out of pocket. TA DA>>>

A right?
"This is a matter of human rights. People should be covered and not have to make choices. Free-markets cannot do this. Nor is it their responsibility. The government has to get involved becasue it is a human right, not a market."

And there's the rub. Simply having a pulse doesn't mean you have a "right" to health care. Why don't we get rid of the monetary system altogether? After all, it is our right to have all the things we want isn't it?


What are rights Kimmie?
Kimbery,

You make the argument that "Simply having a pulse doesn't mean you have a "right" to health care." But what are rights? Rights are only what a certain group of people decide they are at a certain time. There is no such thing as a fundamental right. For instance, on what basis do people have the "right" to bear arms? None, aside from what a small group of men decided 200+ years ago. (And no, it's not a God-given right, as some have claimed. Find such a right defined in the Bible.) True, the right to health care is not currently enumerated in the Constitution, but maybe it's time it should be. After all, I can't think of many basic rights that might be more important than health care. What good is a free press or protection from unreasonable search and seizure if you're dying or bedridden because you can't get medical care?

Lib at Heart
"Rights are only what a certain group of people decide they are at a certain time."

Exactly. We have a constitution for a reason.

"There is no such thing as a fundamental right. For instance, on what basis do people have the "right" to bear arms? None, aside from what a small group of men decided 200+ years ago."

That's right, "none" other than the Constitution on which our nation was founded...

"True, the right to health care is not currently enumerated in the Constitution, but maybe it's time it should be."

Says who? How is health care any different than having a cell phone and cable? If I pay $200 a month for a cell phone and 500 tv channels rather than health care premiums why should I be entitled to health care? No one is denied health care in America. They choose not to pay for it. And emergency care isn't denied to anyone.

"After all, I can't think of many basic rights that might be more important than health care."

That's because you are an American and you take all of the rights you do have for granted. In some countries you don't even have the right to free speech so you couldn't even complain about anything without being censured or killed.

"What good is a free press or protection from unreasonable search and seizure if you're dying or bedridden because you can't get medical care?"

What good is healthcare if your quality of life is so low life isn't worth living? Would you rather live in North Korea with free health care or the USA and have to pay for insurance?

I'm all for everyone having healthcare. It just isn't the business of the U.S. government to make it happen. I am forever amazed by the liberals who rail against Bush for the failures of the VA on Tuesday and then on Wednesday scream from the rooftops that they want all healthcare to be of VA quality.




Not the point
Whether everyone should or should not have health care is not the point of this discussion. The point is who should run the health care? The government never runs anything very well. Please look at AMTRACK.

If the government runs health care, we will all have inferior care.

Those who think it is a human right to have health care should have a deduction from their paycheck to pay for it. The everyone should have it people always think that we should all pay for their ideas and suffer the consequences of their lack of understanding.

Stedes, since when is your right
to demand the service of someone else?? Moron, healthcare or insurance cannot be a right as it entails the services of others and no right can force others to give up their rights!

Just remember

no one has yet proven obama is an American citizen. This is true despite abundant evidence that he is not an American.

When the truth comes out, how many of you will have egg on your faces from accepting the implausible position that the evidence is wrong and obama is really an American citizen?

Ask obama and his minions for proof that he is an American citizen. The minions have no proof and the odds are that the only documentation obama can produce will prove he is not an American citizen.

If the rule of law means nothing to you people, than we will all be forced to submit to tyranny.

$1 trillion over the next 10 years ???
Right now we spend $2.5 trillion per year on health care. And BO expects us to believe the government can cover even more people for only $100 billion a year after he destroys all private healthcare? Thats a lot of rationing!

The actual cost will be more than $30 trillion over the next 10 years. You will pay more and get less.

Healthcare UK style
On a trip to Scotland in 2004, I talked with one of the natives and he says that the Government takes 43% off the top of their salaries for healthcare. Of course Scotland in part of the UK.
So if you want national health care just take 43% of your salary before anything else comes out and see if that fits for you. There are other drawbacks to this system that are too numerous to mention here. But if it is any consolation to you, The Scots come to America for the major operations and stuff.

Please!! Get Word to Ur Congress NOW!!
The Congress is to vote on Ob's "Absolutely ial Health Plan" AKA Socialized Medicine, FRIDAY.. There are several Web Sites out there to facilitate Ur EMail.. I've been using the one to Citizens Against Govt Waste (CAGW)..Please do this!!

Osama Obama's Healthcare
Just remember folks:
A trillion is simply a MILLION TIMES A MILLION!!

Be careful what you wish for.....
I am a critical care RN and have been for 5 years. We do need health care reform, but President Obama is wrong about how is going about it. So here is the order of what you can bet is about to happen should healthcare reform pass:

1) Government plan passes (plan Pres. Obama wants is much like Canadian system, do you want to know how many Canadian nurses I know that fled that system?) Slowly over 5 years employers begin to scrap there health plans to save money as there profits are taxed heavily by federal govt. However, around 16 million un-insured americans are now have health care. Ditractors of the President are shot down by biased media and President as uncaring or elitist.

2) The government system grows to a huge size giving it unprecedented power. To cut costs in its own system, reimbursements to hospitals and doctors is decreased to medicaid and medicare levels.

3) Slowly over 15 years fewer and fewer MD's enter med school to replace retiring MD's and once disinfranchised with system. As there is no longer a lucrative financial incentive to draw talented MD's and Nurses, the quality and number of a MD's and Nurses will decrease.

4) Wait times get progressively longer and quality of care within a hospital goes down.

Why do we trust a government that can't keep track of billions of dollars with our health?

Why do we think this huge impersonal system will be any better than say another form of government health care such as the VA system.

Forget for a moment that you won't be able to see you chosen MD in a timely manner. What happens if there aren't enough nurses to care for patients?

What happens when the quality of nurses goes down and there work load goes up.

Be careful of unintended consequences America and don't say we in the health care field didn't warn you.
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