The Enormous Price Tag of Government Run Healthcare
By Noreen Alladina • Monday, March 15, 2010 4:06 pm
One of the central issues in politics is how to fix the broken healthcare system. Costs are exorbitantly high and quality is lagging. Despite whether you believe the government should intervene in the market for healthcare or not, we must ask the essential question of whether the government can afford to provide healthcare for Americans.
The answer, of course, is no. No because the government has already stacked up a debt high enough to stir panic. The other option is to pay for it via tax hikes. But raising taxes to levels this country has not seen in several years will only deter investment and economic growth and distort incentives to work, leaving the government with even less money to pay for rising costs of healthcare.
Let’s take a look at Medicare as an example. The 1967 estimates for Medicare totaled to $12 billion by 1990. The actual spending came to $110 billion in 1990—over 10 times as much as was planned. This staggering difference provides us with just a glimpse of what the Healthcare Bill might involve. The latest CBO score for the Senate Healthcare Bill amounted to $875 billion for the next 10 years. Using Medicare as a benchmark, one can only imagine what the actual costs will come to 10 years down the line.
The implications of the government reaching its hand into the healthcare market stretch far and wide. We must use hindsight as a basis for judging the accuracy of cost estimates in Congress. As far as I can see, the price tag on government run healthcare is not something we can afford.
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I am curious. If government run health care is so bad, why do all the Republicans congressmen use it? As federal workers they get 75% of their premiums paid for by the taxpayers. If they really dislike taxpayer funded health insurance, why don't they just drop their government plan and sign up for a private plan like many of us self employed sole proprietors. Sounds like a double standard.. Not good for you, but good for me. And I don't want you to have what I have. At least Democrats legislators support government run health care and think we should all have the same type of plan. But Republican congressmen denounce it in public and then....sign up for it ! Sounds like hypocrisy.. wouldn't you agree.
>> Norris Hall March 28, 2010 12:13 pm
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