- Sets up a new competitive private health insurance market – through state Exchanges -- giving millions of Americans and small businesses access to affordable coverage, and the same choices of insurance that members of Congress will have.
- Holds insurance companies accountable by keeping premiums down and preventing many types of insurance industry abuses and denials of care, and ending discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.
Even though many find it comforting, the fact the United States passed a universal healthcare, there are many that wonder how we are going to pay for it. First, Washington spends everything it collect in taxes, second it borrowes from citizens and spends that as well and, it also borrowes from foreign governments, banks, and investors just to keep the lights on in washington dc. The U.S. government now owes foreign governments and investors a total sum of $4.47 trillion. Of course the largest creditor is China, holding $1.15 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, Nor should it come as a surprise that Japan, the UK, and OPEC nations also hold huge amounts in the following amounts $890.3 billion, $295.5 billion, and $218.8 billion. Soon after Mr. Obama took office, the budget deficit went out of contol, and the nations debt increased to unprecedented levels. Which forced the president to setup a bi-partisian commision to analyze the nations debt/deficit issues and to recommend solutions. And the following is what the commison said and titled its report " Moment Of Truth".
"Our nation is on an unsustainable fiscal path. Spending is rising and revenues are falling short, requiring the government to borrow huge sums each year to make up the difference. We face staggering deficits. In 2010, federal spending was nearly 24 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the value of all goods and services produced in the economy. Only during World War II was federal spending a larger part of the economy. Tax revenues stood at 15 percent of GDP this year, the lowest level since 1950. The gap between spending and revenue – the budget deficit – was just under nine percent of GDP. Since the last time our budget was balanced in 2001, the federal debt has increased dramatically, rising from 33 percent of GDP to 62 percent of GDP in 2010. The escalation was driven in large part by two wars and a slew of fiscally irresponsible policies, along with a deep economic downturn. We have arrived at the moment of truth, and neither political party is without blame.Economic recovery will improve the deficit situation in the short run because revenues will rise as people go back to work, and money spent on the social safety net will decline as fewer people are forced to rely on it. But even after the economy recovers, federal spending is projected to increase faster than revenues, so the government will have to continue borrowing money to spend. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects if we continue on our current course, deficits will remain high throughout the rest of this decade and beyond, and debt will spiral ever higher, reaching 90 percent of GDP in 2020. Over the long run, as the baby boomers retire and health care costs continue to grow, the situation will become far worse. By 2025 revenue will be able to finance only interest payments, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Every other federal government activity – from national defense and homeland security to transportation and energy – will have to be paid for with borrowed money. Debt held by the public will outstrip the entire American economy, growing to as much as 185 percent of GDP by 2035. Interest on the debt could rise to nearly $1 trillion by 2020. These mandatory payments – which buy absolutely no goods or services – will squeeze out funding for all other priorities.Federal debt this high is unsustainable. It will drive up interest rates for all borrowers –businesses and individuals – and curtail economic growth by crowding out private investment. By making it more expensive for entrepreneurs and businesses to raise capital, innovate, and create jobs, rising debt could reduce per-capita GDP, each American’s share of the nation’s economy, by as much as 15 percent by 2035. Rising debt will also hamstring the government, depriving it of the resources needed to respond to future crises and invest in other priorities. Deficit spending is often used to respond to shortterm financial “emergency” needs such as wars or recessions. If our national debt grows higher, the federal government may even have difficulty borrowing funds at an affordable interest rate, preventing it from effectively responding. Large debt will put America at risk by exposing it to foreign creditors. They currently own more than half our public debt, and the interest we pay them reduces our own standard of living. The single largest foreign holder of our debt is China, a nation that may not share our country’s aspirations and strategic interests. In a worst-case scenario, investors could lose confidence that our nation is able or willing to repay its loans – possibly triggering a debt crisis that would force the government to implement the most stringent of austerity measures. Predicting the precise level of public debt that would trigger such a crisis is difficult, but a key factor may be whether the debt has been stabilized as a share of the economy or if it continues to rise. Investors, reluctant to risk throwing good money after bad, are sure to be far more concerned about rising debt than stable debt. In a recent briefing on the risk of a fiscal crisis, CBO explained that while “there is no identifiable tipping point of debt relative to GDP indicating that a crisis is likely or imminent,” the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio is “climbing into unfamiliar territory” and “the higher the debt, the greater the risk of such a crisis.”
So knowing for fact the federal government can't afford anything, let alone universal healthcare, it seems illogical to take the bill for the pubilcs health. Therefore when we add the facts and some logic, it seems the federal goverment is hungry for a healthy power, not the peoples health. Even though the facts exist, the other side argues how some unfortunate souls are being denied of care, the cost, and use Micheal Moores' example "Cuba" to convince us, The Affordable Care Act will be a success story. With no disrespect to Mr. Moore, lets figure if thier argument is valid by asking few questions.
Are Health Care Costs Soaring?
You cannot judge the “cost” of something by simply what you spend. You must also judge what you get. People generally just want to pay 1950 prices for 21st century health care. They want the latest pills, techniques, therapies, and highly skilled labor that would make today’s health care seem like science fiction a few years ago.
Is Canadian Drug Cheaper?
The general story is how you can buy many drugs in Canada cheaper than you can buy them in the US. We have a partially free market in the US where drug companies spend a ton to develop new wonder drugs, much of which is spent to satisfy regulatory requirements. The cost of this development is called a “fixed cost.” Once it’s developed it does not cost that much to make each pill. That’s called a “variable cost.” If people only paid the variable cost for each pill, the whole thing would not work. The drug company would never get back the massive fixed cost of creating the drug in the first place, so no company would try to develop one. The Candians have socialized medicine and they bargain as the only Canadian buyer for drugs, paying well below normal costs. Drug companies that spent the enormous fixed costs to create new miracles are charging a relatively high cost in the free and still largely competitive world to recoup their fixed cost and make some profit. But socialist societies like Canada limit the price they are allowed to charge. The US-based company is then faced with a dilemma. What Canada will pay is not enough to ever have justified creating the medicine. But, once created, perhaps Canada is paying more than the variable cost of each pill. Thus, the company can make some money by also selling to Canada at a lower price; as it’s still more than it costs them to make that last pill. Drug companies in general sell their products to Canada at low prices, making a little profit, and reducing slightly the amount they need to charge us.
Does Socialized Medicine Works In Some Places?
Socialized medicine has never been truly tested. Those who claim socialism’s success have never seen a world without a relatively free US to make or pay for their new drugs, surgical techniques, and other medical advancements for them. Citing the Nordic countries as examples for temporary success of free health care can't be used as an example because that can't be applied no further than a state like Rhode Island. The Nordic country’s so called“success” is going to be played out how "Japan Inc" was going to take over the world, as their changing demographics change their fantasy .
Is Socialized Medicine Better Because Their Cost/GDP For Health Care is Lower?
Measuring cost/GDP is inaccurate as it leaves out most of the cost, the cost of lower GDP growth. Countries with larger government sectors generally seem to experience slower GDP growth. Many of the countries we are being compared with come from, healthier cultures than ours. If Americans more often go for Micky D's, Of course our cost/GDP will be higher. If we change our system to socialism, but these habits don't change, our costs will still be higher. So will Washington then come up with diet and exercise laws?
Can Public Option Co-Exist with a Private Option?
Part of the current administration’s plan is to add a public option for health insurance. That is health insurance provided by the government .They claim the public option can co-exist fairly alongside private health insurance, increasing competition and keeping the private system honest.The regulator cannot be a competitor at the same time, It cannot compete fairly while it owns the armed forces and courts. Finally, it cannot be a fair competitor if when the “public option” can’t pay its bills the government implicitly or explicitly guarantees its debts. The first thing the government does is underprice the private system. They will underprice private enterprise by chargingless to the purchaser of health insurance, not by actually creating it cheaper. Who makes up the difference? if you pay taxes, you do. The government can always underprice competition, not through doing things better, they never do that, but by robbing Peter to pay for Paul. Once the government discovers it cannot win, it changes the rules. You see, the government has the power to legislate, steal, imprison, and even kill. Those are advantages most private firms do not have.
We Can Have Health Care Without Rationing?
If you have a material good or service, like health care, that is ever increasing in quality, and therefore cost, there is no way everyone on Earth can have the best at all times,It’s going to be rationed by some means. The alternatives come down to the marketplace or the government. To choose between those alternatives you judge on morality and efficency.There is no system that provides for unlimited wants with limited resources. Our choice is whether it should be rationed by free people making their own economic calculations or by a bureaucracy run by Congressional committee. Free people making their own choices tend to consume what they value above price.
Is Health Care is A Right?
This is more philosophy than economics. Listing rights generally involves enumerating things you may do without interference "the right to free speech" for example or "illegal search and seizure".This are protections, not material goods. Material goods and services must be taken from others, or provided by their labor, so if you believe you have an absolute right to them, and others don’t choose to provide it to you, you then have a “right” to steal from them. A great example of why the “right” to health care makes no sense is as follows. Did you have a right to chemotherapy in 1600 AD? Then, did you have a right to it the moment some genius invented it? You did not pay for the research. You did not make the breakthrough. Where do you get the right? How did it come into existence for you the moment somebody else created these things? I’m confident that you cannot have rights to material goods that don’t exist, and I am certain that the moment some genius, business, or even government brings them into the world your “rights” do not suddenly improve.
According to Dr. Ron Paul, "The insurance industry has been lobbying for mandated coverage for everyone. Imagine if the cell phone industry received such a gift from government? If government were to fine individuals simply for not buying a corporation’s product, it would be an incredible and completely unfair boon to that industry, at the expense of freedom and the free market. Yet this is what the current healthcare reform plans intend to do for the very powerful health insurance industry.It is sad to think of the many creative, free market solutions that government prohibits with all its interference. What if instead of joining a health insurance plan, you could buy a membership directly from a hospital or doctor? What if a doctor wanted to have a cash-only practice, or make house calls, or determine his or her own patient load, or otherwise practice medicine outside the constraints of the current bureaucratic system? Alternative healthcare delivery models will be at an even stronger competitive disadvantage if families are forced to buy into the insurance model. And yet, the reforms are sold to us as increasing competition.What if just once Washington got out of the way and allowed the American people to come up with alternatives to our broken system? Then the free market, not lobbyists and politicians, would decide which models work and which did not.Unfortunately, the most broken aspect of our system is that Washington sees the need to act on every problem in society, rather than staying out of the way, or getting out of the way. The only tools the government has are force and favors. These are tools that many corporations would like to use to their own advantage, rather than simply providing a better product that people will willingly buy. It seems the health insurance industry will get more of those advantages very soon". In the very near future, if the media headlines are screaming, hospitals being crowded or interviewing people complaing about the quantity and quality care they are recievieng, don't be surprised. Even if the United States declares bankruptcy, you could just lay back sippin' whiskey because you have read this and have prepared.
