The Internal Revenue Service issued a regulation this week that is a sobering harbinger of what we are facing with the inexcusable debacle called “Obamacare“. The IRS posted an estimated 2016 premium cost for the Bronze Plan (or lowest level) of government healthcare insurance at $20,000 per family per year … $20,000 … for the low-quality plan. Take a moment to digest that, and then remember that the government NEVER overestimates any cost to the “consumer” (another quaint government term for “serf“). They also never, ever provide delivery of goods or services with greater efficiency or less expense than the private sector can. Countless examples abound.
One wonders what the Silver, Gold and Platinum plans will cost, and what levels of “care” are included in each. For those who opt not to carry health insurance, there is a “penalty” of 2.5 per cent of the household income to be confiscated by the government. Even though the Supreme Court ruled that it is in fact a “tax“, the Administration stubbornly insists on referring to it as a “penalty“. The clear implication is that those who eschew Mother government’s beneficence are miscreants deserving punishment.
Rush Limbaugh and others have pointed out countless times that when governments want to encourage a certain behavior they subsidize and deregulate it, and when they want to diminish or eradicate something they tax and regulate it. It’s a non-violent means by which governments suppress opposition and reward supporters. While it may not be violent in the sense that blunt force is avoided, it is powerful oppression nonetheless.
The President has made it clear through his socialist propensities that he is in fact pathologically opposed to private enterprise. He has consistently sought, through one means or another, to use every power of government, whether coercive or promotional, to either break the independence of private business or make it so beholden to the federal government through bailouts and assistance that it must then toady to the will of its master.
Two glaring examples of this are the ongoing Hobby Lobby standoff against new healthcare rules that contain morally abhorrent requirements, and the so-called GM bailout, where the recipient of government largesse is now compelled to manufacture a product nobody wants (Chevy’s Volt). The government then stepped in and mandated that its agencies buy Volts with our tax dollars, to prop up the flagging sales of this loser. This sham is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s pre-release purchase of tens of thousands of copies of her own book, in order to garner a spot on the NY Times’ best-seller list.
We have now had a glimpse of the future of healthcare in real (if estimated) numbers, as the President’s ‘”legacy” legislation begins to be fleshed out. So far we have seen that it will provide less services at greater cost, as mammograms and other regular preventive examinations are spaced farther apart to save cost. This puts the populace at higher risk, as early detection and treatment are the best means of handling these scourges. Medical costs will continue to escalate due to government inefficiency. The ultimate end of this landmark folly will likely be the complete takeover and socialization of American healthcare, as the problems multiply to such a scale that only an entity as large as the federal government will be capable of managing the snarl it created. We have seen this scenario repeatedly in state and municipal projects, and the end result is always inferior outcomes at exorbitant cost, with no accountability.
When competition is removed from healthcare, so is quality control. Free market competition is the only assurance the consumer has that the quality of the goods and services he or she seeks rises to some level of excellence. Instead of Obama offering American voters an incentive tax break for securing quality healthcare for themselves and their families at competitive prices, he instead will whack them in the pocketbook if they don’t comply with his plan.
Obamacare is all stick and no apple. We are on the path to fully-socialized healthcare. The pieces have been placed on the chessboard. It’s only a matter of time before his real “dreams from his father” become a nightmare for the rest of us. I’m starting to feel a little sick …
Image: MacDermott Tower Implsion; author: Ballymuner; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
