The Ever-Increasing Costs Of Obama's Health Care Takeover

Wow...and not in a good kind of way:

Yesterday the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a preliminary analysis of the Kennedy-Dodd health care plan, and the results were truly frightening. Assessing just Title I of the draft legislation, CBO estimated the plan would add $1 trillion to the federal deficit while only extending health insurance to a net 16 million more Americans. As scary as that is, what is even more disturbing is what costs the CBO did not estimate: “The proposal does not include a ‘public plan’ that would be offered in the exchanges, nor does it contain provisions that would require employers to offer health insurance benefits or impose a fee or tax on them if they did not offer insurance coverage to their workers.”

Did you catch the most important phrase there? This is without the 'public plan option', which is the main event in Obama's takeover plans! It also avoids the costs of taxes or fees that would be leveled at employers who didn't bend over and grab the ankles. And, keep in mind the number being thrown around: 47 million. There are supposedly 47 million uninsured in this country. Obama's bill is going to spend $1,000,000,000,000 on a plan to insure just 1/3 of them! By this math, that means the total cost to insure all 47 million would be well over $3,000,000,000,000, and if you assume that the project goes over budget by 50% (not at all uncommon, given the government's track record), that means we're actually talking about $4,500,000,000,000.

Who thinks that's a good idea?? Only liberals and the uninformed, that's who.

And...surprise, surprise...more lies are revealed by Obama's own CBO:

Speaking to the American Medical Association yesterday, President Obama promised: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.” The CBO disagrees. According to their analysis, while the Kennedy-Dodd bill would enable 39 million Americans to obtain health insurance, the plan would kick about 15 million people out of the system because their employers would no longer offer insurance, and coverage from other sources would decline by 8 million. These numbers will only look worse once a public plan is factored in.

But it gets even worse:

• An independent analysis by the Lewin Group ... shows that a public plan depending on eligibility and payments rates could result in up to 119.1 million Americans being switched by their employers from their existing coverage or transferred to government-sponsored coverage so that employers can reduce benefit costs. Thus a public plan, especially combined with a mandate on employers to offer government-specified coverage or pay a tax, would mean that millions of Americans would be pushed out of the private coverage they have today.
• The committee bill would impose “a shared responsibility” on both individuals and employers to pay for health coverage. These requirements amount to mandates, though the penalties are not spelled out. An employer mandate would be a regressive tax on business that would be directly shifted to employees in the form of reduced future wages or job losses. It would also spur many employers to drop private coverage, paying the tax rather than having to buy government-specified insurance. An individual mandate would force Americans to buy a set of health benefits designed by the government or suffer some penalty.
• Under the committee bill, Congress and federal officials would exert a high degree of control over health insurance, including underwriting and rating rules, and would prescriptively organize the market for competing health plans. That would limit the ability of states to design rules and market rules that fit local conditions.

This is a literal disaster in the making. There's no other possible outcome.

I guess that's why some in the GOP are finally starting to get a clue:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, called on President Obama and Democrats in Congress to "scrap the current [healthcare] bill and start over."

"The CBO letter should be a wakeup call for all of us to scrap the current bill and start over," said McCain. "Start over in a true bipartisan fashion," said McCain, although his idea for healthcare reform would not find much support among Democrats.

McCain also addressed Jake Tapper's report that stiff cost estimate – which McCain thinks is low-ball – has the White House distancing itself from Kennedy's health committee plan.

"Well where is the administration's bill?" asked a frustrated McCain. "We're supposed to be enacting legislation before the end of July. Where is the administration's bill?"

Indeed, where is it? Oh wait, that's right...this was it. Oh, sure, maybe it had a couple Senators' names on it, but make no mistake that government-controlled health care is what Obama wants. The fight is far from over, but this round can certainly be won. Now is the time to pick up the phone and call the people who supposedly represent you.

Kill this America-killer.

There's my two cents.