The Thursday headline read, “Survey: Obamacare Raised Costs”. The byline was a head-cocker, “White House accuses survey of 'looking backwards’.”
How else can we learn what actually happened besides looking backwards? Looking backwards is the only way to test theory with fact, to verify assumptions, and…never mind, I forgot the central tenet of liberalism: because it was supposed to it did, and you are a hater if you dare to question it.
Obamacare was supposed to improve health care and lower cost, so we are supposed to simply accept that it did. Just like all those other programs were supposed to end poverty, improve education, extinguish racism, heal the sick, eradicate drug use, cleanse the environment, feed the hungry, house the homeless, reduce crime, make industry competitive, give the disadvantaged a leg up, create a safety net, give everybody a leg up into the safety net.
The Kaiser Family Foundation study found health care costs increased by 9% in the year after President Obama’s signature reform legislation went into effect. This is nearly 3 times the rate of increase (3.1%) recorded in the year before the legislation kicked in. This was not the direction that the cost curve was supposed to be bent.
Is anyone surprised? The Bill added 2.3 million 18-26 year-olds to employer plans, forced pre-existing condition coverage, and mandated so many other additional costs that waivers had to be handed out faster than Kleenex at a funeral. Do you think all those unions and businesses and charities were rushing to get those waivers in order to avoid cost savings?
The White House did not dispute the Kaiser findings; rather, it “accused” the researchers of looking backwards, as if that were a treasonous act. Mr. Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff’s rebuke said, "When we look to the future we know that The Affordable Care Act will help make insurance more affordable for families and businesses across the country."
Oh, well, that settles it, then. Because it was supposed to, it will, or did, or does, or something. The sand would be an upgrade from the hiding place of the head naïve enough to believe that.
I can see why looking backwards would be uncomfortable for the Obama administration. When we look backwards, we discover that the stimulus did not create jobs, that the earth did not warm, that health care costs went up, that GDP has yet to recover, that home prices are still falling, that Solyndra went belly up, that ATF sold guns to Mexican drug cartels, and that boots are on the ground in Libya.
It is much more pleasant to talk about things that will never happen as if they already did. That’s how he won the Nobel Peace Prize, after all, and the best jobs bill is always the next one. With real unemployment hovering around 20% and GDP growth within rounding error of zero, it is no surprise this White House prefers daydreaming to data.
To be fair, not all of the increase in health care costs was due to Mr. Obama’s PACA; each year America gets older and fatter and new and better treatments hit the market which cost more than the ones they replace. No one likes it, but it is better to be alive and bitching about the price than to be affordably gone.
I don’t work in the White House, so I am not required to see sunshine and kittens when I look into the future. That affordable health care for families and businesses they keep telling us about does not jump out at me when I peer into the dismal next they have created for us.
No, I see every single penny of the President’s rich-bastard tax that will be levied on doctors, dentists, anesthesiologists, radiologists, surgeons, and high-end nurses being tacked onto our medical bills. I see nothing but new mandates, fines, and administrative red tape for every employer in the country; increasing the cost of doing business, forcing layoffs and depressing wages.
I see billions of dollars going to consultants to tell us what we have to do to be in compliance with a steady stream of new regulations from a dozen agencies that don’t talk to each other. I see a string of court cases a mile long to sort out all of the conflicting mandates that those federal agencies and their counterparts in the states will impose.
I see millions of working Americans scurrying to enroll in state exchanges when their employers drop coverage. I see every liberal in the nation blaming the employers when this happens, not the Party that wrote the provisions of the law which incent employers to opt out. For the record, that was not the Libertarian Party.
Want to find a politician who actually did reduce health care costs? Try Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. He exposed the WEA trust health insurance racket and busted it; in cities and towns all across the state, tens of millions – hundreds, ultimately – are being saved through choice and competition. The unions had to be broken for the cost curve to be bent. Our President doesn’t have the stones.
There was never a health care problem in this country; we have a cost problem. President Obama and the Democrats imposed their big-government solution and premium costs went up by 9%. Governor Walker and the Republicans imposed their market-competition solution and premium costs have been reduced by tens of millions. The politics are debatable; the math is not.
The irony is that the same people who demanded the President’s reforms are the ones screaming bloody murder about the cost of getting what they wanted. They also opposed the Governor’s reforms with all their might and are hell-bent to recall him despite the daily flow of municipalities reporting lower health care premium costs, the very thing they coo and purr over Mr. Obama for merely promising. I suppose nothing is as affordable as forcing someone else to buy your care, but lowering its cost has to be the next best thing.
Mr. Obama went too far and Mr. Walker did not go far enough. Looking backward reveals trajectory, but not opportunity. The Libertarian solution is to withdraw government from the health care system entirely. Choice and competition will produce better care for more people at lower prices. Doctors and patients don’t need any costly help from parasitic consultants, lawyers, lobbyists, bureaucrats, IRS agents, politicians, activists, advocates, pundits, think tanks, and social scientists.
It is neither the priest nor the policeman that keeps the auto mechanic honest in a small town; it is the second auto mechanic. Choice and competition, not government control, will make our health care system affordable and accessible. Real health care reform will come when Obamacare is repealed and the system is liberated from government interference.
That will be a good day to look backward. We will have accomplished something.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
How else can we learn what actually happened besides looking backwards? Looking backwards is the only way to test theory with fact, to verify assumptions, and…never mind, I forgot the central tenet of liberalism: because it was supposed to it did, and you are a hater if you dare to question it.
Obamacare was supposed to improve health care and lower cost, so we are supposed to simply accept that it did. Just like all those other programs were supposed to end poverty, improve education, extinguish racism, heal the sick, eradicate drug use, cleanse the environment, feed the hungry, house the homeless, reduce crime, make industry competitive, give the disadvantaged a leg up, create a safety net, give everybody a leg up into the safety net.
The Kaiser Family Foundation study found health care costs increased by 9% in the year after President Obama’s signature reform legislation went into effect. This is nearly 3 times the rate of increase (3.1%) recorded in the year before the legislation kicked in. This was not the direction that the cost curve was supposed to be bent.
Is anyone surprised? The Bill added 2.3 million 18-26 year-olds to employer plans, forced pre-existing condition coverage, and mandated so many other additional costs that waivers had to be handed out faster than Kleenex at a funeral. Do you think all those unions and businesses and charities were rushing to get those waivers in order to avoid cost savings?
The White House did not dispute the Kaiser findings; rather, it “accused” the researchers of looking backwards, as if that were a treasonous act. Mr. Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff’s rebuke said, "When we look to the future we know that The Affordable Care Act will help make insurance more affordable for families and businesses across the country."
Oh, well, that settles it, then. Because it was supposed to, it will, or did, or does, or something. The sand would be an upgrade from the hiding place of the head naïve enough to believe that.
I can see why looking backwards would be uncomfortable for the Obama administration. When we look backwards, we discover that the stimulus did not create jobs, that the earth did not warm, that health care costs went up, that GDP has yet to recover, that home prices are still falling, that Solyndra went belly up, that ATF sold guns to Mexican drug cartels, and that boots are on the ground in Libya.
It is much more pleasant to talk about things that will never happen as if they already did. That’s how he won the Nobel Peace Prize, after all, and the best jobs bill is always the next one. With real unemployment hovering around 20% and GDP growth within rounding error of zero, it is no surprise this White House prefers daydreaming to data.
To be fair, not all of the increase in health care costs was due to Mr. Obama’s PACA; each year America gets older and fatter and new and better treatments hit the market which cost more than the ones they replace. No one likes it, but it is better to be alive and bitching about the price than to be affordably gone.
I don’t work in the White House, so I am not required to see sunshine and kittens when I look into the future. That affordable health care for families and businesses they keep telling us about does not jump out at me when I peer into the dismal next they have created for us.
No, I see every single penny of the President’s rich-bastard tax that will be levied on doctors, dentists, anesthesiologists, radiologists, surgeons, and high-end nurses being tacked onto our medical bills. I see nothing but new mandates, fines, and administrative red tape for every employer in the country; increasing the cost of doing business, forcing layoffs and depressing wages.
I see billions of dollars going to consultants to tell us what we have to do to be in compliance with a steady stream of new regulations from a dozen agencies that don’t talk to each other. I see a string of court cases a mile long to sort out all of the conflicting mandates that those federal agencies and their counterparts in the states will impose.
I see millions of working Americans scurrying to enroll in state exchanges when their employers drop coverage. I see every liberal in the nation blaming the employers when this happens, not the Party that wrote the provisions of the law which incent employers to opt out. For the record, that was not the Libertarian Party.
Want to find a politician who actually did reduce health care costs? Try Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. He exposed the WEA trust health insurance racket and busted it; in cities and towns all across the state, tens of millions – hundreds, ultimately – are being saved through choice and competition. The unions had to be broken for the cost curve to be bent. Our President doesn’t have the stones.
There was never a health care problem in this country; we have a cost problem. President Obama and the Democrats imposed their big-government solution and premium costs went up by 9%. Governor Walker and the Republicans imposed their market-competition solution and premium costs have been reduced by tens of millions. The politics are debatable; the math is not.
The irony is that the same people who demanded the President’s reforms are the ones screaming bloody murder about the cost of getting what they wanted. They also opposed the Governor’s reforms with all their might and are hell-bent to recall him despite the daily flow of municipalities reporting lower health care premium costs, the very thing they coo and purr over Mr. Obama for merely promising. I suppose nothing is as affordable as forcing someone else to buy your care, but lowering its cost has to be the next best thing.
Mr. Obama went too far and Mr. Walker did not go far enough. Looking backward reveals trajectory, but not opportunity. The Libertarian solution is to withdraw government from the health care system entirely. Choice and competition will produce better care for more people at lower prices. Doctors and patients don’t need any costly help from parasitic consultants, lawyers, lobbyists, bureaucrats, IRS agents, politicians, activists, advocates, pundits, think tanks, and social scientists.
It is neither the priest nor the policeman that keeps the auto mechanic honest in a small town; it is the second auto mechanic. Choice and competition, not government control, will make our health care system affordable and accessible. Real health care reform will come when Obamacare is repealed and the system is liberated from government interference.
That will be a good day to look backward. We will have accomplished something.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
