Healthcare Bill Notes

[BoxerFanatic]

Originally Posted by demonsvx

I would like to have a choice of keeping my private healthcare and a government plan both of which need to be affordable and create competetion between the two. Keep in mind this healthcare plan came out of nowhere much like the Patriot Act which took a lot of our rights away.

What you say cannot coexist.

Government has a whole different modus operandi than private insurance.

Private insurance takes money, invests it, gains from the investment, and tries to make money from that above the claims they have to pay out.

They have to keep their premiums low, and their investements keen, in order to maintain a profit margin, and keep their premiums low enough to not lose marketshare, and compete in the marketplace for clients.

If premiums go up, if pay-outs are stingy, if customer service sucks, or if their investments tank... they end up behind the 8 ball, compared to the competition, or just outright hurting for capital.

A government takes money, with no consideration for the ability of the taxpayers to pay... and then they wonder why tax receipts go down when the rate goes up. (they don't know the laffer curve...)

They don't have to offer good service, they don't invest in anything other than government bureaucracy and administrative waste. A business atmosphere that promotes stagnation, not innovation.

They control the regulations as to when, where, how and why they pay out... Medicare re-imbursements have gone down, and Medicare is going broke... All they do is print more money to cover more debt, to charge to the taxpayer later, and deflate the dollar.

Then there is the problem of government meeting the private market.

Everyone has to pay taxes... companies do not. Companies expense taxes as a cost of doing business, so their consumers/clients pay taxes.

If the government sees political gain in controlling and doling out health insurance coverage... and they DO, because the promise of it gains votes, and continued power... They will set the rules that restrict private insurance, and make it harder for private insurers to compete... by throwing regulatory monkey-wrenches into the machinery I mentioned above.

And when the private apparatus sputters, and tries to adjust, the people get transferred to government coverage.

Now employers don't have to pay health insurance benefits... nor do they have to raise wages to improve the buying power of their employees so that they can afford to shop for their own insurance... the employees just have more income taxes to pay for government coverage.

So some employers do that right away, and dump their health insurance plans off onto the government, lowering business costs, and giving the government more political power simultaneously...

The hold out employers now are at an instant disadvantage. They are still paying health benefits. Their employees are getting taxed just as much as the other companys' employees, and the standard of living is still being held down, and the health insurance providers are having to cut benefits, raise deductibles, raise premiums, and are generally getting pushed out of profitability.

So either the hold-out employers get pushed by their lower-business-cost competitors, and they drop health benefits, without giving as big of raises, either... and join that bandwagon...

Or the hold out employers see their cost of coverage go way up, and are forced into the same position that way...

Or the health insurance provider fails, and the hold out employer has to either get other very expensive coverage, or is mandated by government regulation to convert their employees to government coverage.

The government coverage will suck every ounce of air out of that market, and will assume control by attrition.

That is why Obama and his ilk can promise a choice, and not tell people that they'll be forced instantly into government coverage, when speaking in public, but when speaking to AFLCIO, SEIU, ACORN, and the rest, he can openly say that this is the road to single payer. Both cannot be true. The latter is the truth, and the former lie to the american public is just time-frame lip-service for political shielding.

THIS is what happens with nationalized industries... and IIRC either John Adams or James Madison said it at the beginning of this country. More freedoms have been destroyed by incremental encroachment on liberty over time, than violent usurpation.

The only difference is... incrementalism has been shifted into high gear in the last 6 months.