Over 16,529,856 people are on fubar.
What are you waiting for?
Last week, the Congressional Budget Office released its
preliminary cost estimate for the health plan put forward by Senator
Max Baucus (D-MT). The plan would cost $829 billion over ten years but
still reduce the deficit by $81 billion.
The White House and liberals in Congress say the report confirms
President Obama's promise that big-government reforms "will help bring
our deficits under control in the long term." The leftist media
jumped on board, heralding the CBO's numbers as a "green light" for
Obamacare.
Does it sound too good to be true? There's a good reason why: Heritage
health policy expert Nina Owcharenko points out that the report is far
from rosy.
* Just a preliminary analysis. The CBO makes very clear that its
analysis is based on Sen. Baucus' plain-English draft proposal.
It is not based on final legislative language, so the cost
estimates are subject to drastic change.
* Real cost may be far higher. The $829 billion ten-year cost
could easily underestimate the real burden. "Virtually all cost
estimates of government programs underestimate the true cost,"
she argues. Just look at programs like Medicare, which came in
about eight times more expensive than early projections.
* 'Paid for' with new taxes. How do you turn $829 billion in
spending into an $81 billion deficit reduction? In part by
raising taxes. Individuals who choose not to purchase
government-approved health coverage and employers who opt not to
provide coverage to their employees will face heavy taxes. And
new taxes on insurance companies will simply be passed on to
consumers in the form of higher premiums.
* 'Paid for' with unlikely cuts. The other way the Left would pay
for this bill is by cutting Medicare. How likely are these cuts?
Not very, Owcharenko says: "Traditionally, such cuts rarely come
to fruition. Special interests lobby to stop any real cuts from
occurring after the bill is passed."
* Leaves millions uninsured. Despite spending $829 billion or more
specifically to provide insurance to those without it, 26
million people will still lack coverage. Of those who do receive
government coverage, approximately half of them will be dumped
into Medicaid -- "a program sorely in need of reform itself."
"In short, the news from CBO is not good news for the American
taxpayers," writes Heritage health policy analyst Dennis Smith.
The secret plan to pass Obamacare
The CBO's appealing estimates help smooth the way for the sneaky and
complex legislative procedures the Left plans to use to pass
Obamacare.
Heritage Senate Relations expert Brian Darling unveils the Left's
"secret plan," warning that it would "railroad the bill through the
Senate using a very unusual closed door procedure to craft the bill
with no input from the American people."
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) has offered one way to ensure the proposal
sees the light of day. He's proposed legislation requiring a 72-hour
waiting period and an official cost estimate before the Senate
considers any legislation.
"If Obama's promises to the American people about ethics and
transparency mean anything," writes Heritage's Conn Carroll, "then he
should insist on a full CBO scoring of health care" prior to any
decision. Anything else would be unfair to the American people,
especially when such a decision so directly affects each of us.
