Mrs. Former President is set to announce her latest foray into socialized medicine today.  She was kind enough to leak out the basics ahead of time so that the AP could start giving her some ink.  I’ll reserve my full commentary until I get a chance to look through the gory details, but the basics aren’t pretty.

First of all it is built upon the employer based system, which is itself one of the core problems with health care in the U.S.  I don’t see why it would be wise to build a huge bureaucracy on a shaky foundation.  And of course her plan isn’t free - remember that “free” health care is anything but.  It’s going to cost, according to the story, about $110 billion per year, which probably means about half a trillion in the unfortunate event it gets implemented.  How will she pay for it?  Raising taxes, of course.

If you pull the string on a liberal you’re going to hear the raise taxes mantra.  The current batch of liberals have changed their language, but don’t be fooled.  The catch phrase of the days is “repeal Bush tax cuts.”  Folks, repealing a tax cut is a tax increase.

Clinton’s plan imposes an “individual mandate” on all citizens.  And no, she isn’t using that phrase to try to get support from Larry Craig and Barney Frank.  Every citizen will be compelled by the government to have health insurance by threat of force.  You’re a young, healthy person?  Too bad.  The article compares - probably parroting what will be one of H-Rod’s talking points - the “individual mandate” to compulsory car insurance, which is a false analogy.  States adopted mandatory auto insurance to protect drivers like me, who already carried insurance for our own economic reasons, from bozos who drove around recklessly without insurance.  In that situation compulsory insurance protects me from others.  There is absolutely no comparison with compulsory health insurance other than she is using that analogy to seize upon the familiarity of the populace with governmental force.

And make no mistake about it, under H-Rod’s plan every business will make a cold hard decision about whether to offer insurance or drop coverage and pay the government imposed fee.  That will effectively eliminate your choice in the matter and force you into the government program because current tax policy and regulations make it prohibitively expensive to purchase insurance privately.  Here’s how it will likely go down.  At first the government fee on businesses will be comparable to what they currently pay for, say, Blue Cross/Blue Shield.  However, the government insurance will probably not be quite as good.  Many businesses will drop coverage and opt for the fee as a rational business decision.  The affected people who find themselves in the substandard government plan will have no option but to petition the government for better coverage, which politicians will be more than happy to do - more power for them.  Taxes on businesses will increase, but so will premiums for private plans because they are now spreading the cost over a smaller group of people.  Eventually there will be few hold outs and a large swath of the country will be under full control of the government.

And make no mistake about it; H-Rod’s program is just a stepping stone to the U.S. adopting a British type health care system.  And in Britain they are predictably moving towards using their socialized health care system to manipulate the lives of private citizens.

Failing to follow a healthy lifestyle could lead to free NHS treatment being denied under the Tory plans.

Patients would be handed “NHS Health Miles Cards” allowing them to earn reward points for losing weight, giving up smoking, receiving immunisations or attending regular health screenings.

Like a supermarket loyalty card, the points could be redeemed as discounts on gym membership and fresh fruit and vegetables, or even give priority for other public services - such as jumping the queue for council housing.

But heavy smokers, the obese and binge drinkers who were a drain on the NHS could be denied some routine treatments such as hip replacements until they cleaned up their act.

A comment with the article left by Neal Asher of Chelmsford, England says it best:

State run health care results in the next power grab: we make you pay for the maintenance of your body, therefore we own your body and can tell you what you must do with it.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 4:18 am and is filed under Government, Health Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.