OPINION

Another Strike in Chicago

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Tonight, if you went to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, you didn’t see a show. The musicians are on strike.

They are striking because their health care costs went up. The union doesn’t want to shoulder more of the costs for their health care.

My supposition is that most of the musicians voted for Obama in the last election. While health care costs would have accelerated in the past four years no matter who was president, they accelerated faster with the passage of Obamacare. Everyone’s costs went way up.

Under Obamacare, your “all in” costs of health care will skyrocket. Not only will the cost of drugs, goods and services go up in a real price sense, but the taxes that you will have to pay to get those items will go much higher as well. You will pay more for less service. Health care will be rationed because there won’t be enough doctors to keep up with demand. If you are lucky enough to be wealthy, you won’t notice because you’ll be able to afford private care.

Repealing Obamacare would cause costs to rise more slowly. However, we need to scrap the way our entire health care system is administered. It needs to become flatter, more localized, and hyper competitive. That would decrease costs, and cause more people to get health care coverage. There would be more innovation, and more jobs would be created. For many though, the downside is that private companies would make a profit. I don’t see a thing wrong with that.

Obamacare is just another example of politicians trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Hope the union members walking the picket line realize that.