Health Care at a Sickening Cost

From the Patriot Post

Health care at a sickening cost
Back in the Great Society era, Social Security was expanded to include Medicare. When the program was introduced, Americans were assured that it would not become a costly drain on the federal budget. But almost every year for the past 40, the cost of Medicare has increased at a faster rate than the cost of private insurance. The federal government now is responsible for 47 percent of all health care costs.

Despite Barack Obama's protestations to the contrary, the $634 billion promised to pay for his ambitious health care plan won't cover its estimated $1 trillion cost over the next decade. And as we have seen before with both Medicare and Medicaid, projected revenues and cost savings are viewed by federal bean counters with the rosiest-tinted glasses available.

Most troubling are the looming tax increases on the owners of small businesses. They will soon bear the brunt of Obama's plan to reduce charitable deductions for wealthier taxpayers. In theory, these increases will cover about half the planned cost, but because taxpayers tend to do their best to avoid paying full freight, it's assured that either the deduction rules will need to be tightened still further or (more likely) the income thresholds for qualification lowered. It seems the private-sector health care condition in this nation may soon be downgraded to critical and unstable.

In related news, Obama selected Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to head the Department of Health and Human Services after his first choice, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, was forced to withdraw when he was found to be a tax cheat. In 2007, Sebelius called on Kansas lawmakers to "commit themselves to universal [health] coverage." She is also vociferously pro-abortion and vetoed several bills that would have imposed modest restrictions on the practice. HHS boasts a $700 billion budget and Sebelius would have significant influence on abortion policy.

One policy up for review is George W. Bush's conscience-based protections for physicians who refuse to perform certain procedures, including abortion, for moral reasons. Unfortunately, "review" could mean "revocation."

"Now it doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed ... or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment." --Ronald Reagan

"Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last." --Ronald Reagan