Political Self Interest vs. Economic Self Interest

Here is a video clip comparing some of Reagan's and Obama's speeches with regard to socialized medicine and political vs. private power.

Begs the question the late Milton Friedman posed:

"Is it really true that political self interest is somehow nobler than economic self interest?"

This is what we must consider as the House is set to vote on the Senate's bill to hand over nearly 20% of our economy to the government. This segment of the economy happens to be a segment that affects each of us deeply - medical care. Obama claims that economic self interest is evil. Is political self interest better? Let your own and other representatives in the House know what you think. We provide a link on the top right hand side of the blog to a site where you can easily locate your rep.

Dan Mitchell of the Cato institute provides a brief explanation of the fiscal disaster that is "health care reform".

The video is only a few minutes long and well worth watching.

How much does this thing cost, III

Cato’s Michael Cannon, writing in National Review Online, does a deep dive on the true cost of Ms. Pelosi’s health care monstrosity:

The $1.5 Trillion Fraud

This is quite possibly the largest expense cover-up in national history, and appears to be an “inside job” – Democrats concealed the individual mandate cost, which helped defeat the Clinton proposal:

Rather than admit the individual mandate’s unpopularity and move on, congressional Democrats simply ensured that its costs would not appear in the federal budget this time around by gaming the CBO’s rule for what constitutes “federal revenues.”

Guess who worked his behind-the-scenes magic to enable this? You got it -

Obama budget director Peter Orszag laid the groundwork for this feat. While director of the CBO in 2007 and 2008, he fostered a more collaborative relationship between the CBO and members of Congress, which enabled the agency to provide behind-the-scenes guidance to Democrats crafting their mandate. That’s why the cost of the Democrats’ individual mandates appears nowhere in the half-dozen or more “preliminary cost estimates” the CBO has completed on various Democratic health-care bills.

So, it still costs “only” $1 trillion, right?

Nope:

So while the CBO estimates that the coverage expansions in the House Democrats’ legislation would trigger about $1 trillion of new federal spending over ten years, the actual cost of those coverage expansions is more like $2.5 trillion.

Thomas Sowell on the Empty Promises of Health Care Reform

In his latest column, Thomas Sowell explores the concept of price and cost with regard to medical care and the foolish, empty promises of politicians.

If we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical drugs now, how can we afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical drugs, in addition to a new federal bureaucracy to administer a government-run medical system?

and..

Economics and politics confront the same fundamental problem: What everyone wants adds up to more than there is. Market economies deal with this problem by confronting individuals with the costs of producing what they want, and letting those individuals make their own trade-offs when presented with prices that convey those costs. That leads to self-rationing, in the light of each individual's own circumstances and preferences.

Politics deals with the same problem by making promises that cannot be kept, or which can be kept only by creating other problems that cannot be acknowledged when the promises are made.

Why the public option will become mandatory

Michael Tanner at Cato has a critical piece about the outcome of health insurance under a so-called public option, Putting Private Insurance Out of Business.

Of note:

The lower cost means that businesses, in particular, would have every incentive to dump workers from their current health insurance plan into the government plan. And, if other provisions of the bill make insurance more expensive, as is likely, the incentive for employers to shift workers to the government plan would be even greater. Estimates suggest that nearly 90 million workers could eventually be forced into the government plan.

It is an economic misconception (or deliberate misrepresentation, depending on your level of skepticism) that introducing a “competing” public plan will somehow achieve lowered costs, but not drive out private providers.

Government-run programs are not subject to regular economic forces, and do not have the same operating constraints borne by private sector enterprises, allowing them to do exactly as Mr. Tanner suggests. To believe otherwise is to live in economic fantasyland.

How much does this thing cost, II

The CBO estimate For HR 3962 is out, and it says $1.055 trillion:

CBO Puts House Health Bill Total Cost At $1.055 Trillion

By Martin Vaughan, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday a U.S. House health-care system re-write would extend health insurance to 96% of the nonelderly U.S. population by 2019, and spend $1.055 trillion to do so.

Penalties imposed on individuals who did not purchase insurance, and employers who did not offer coverage to their workers, would raise $161 billion over that time-frame. That brings the net cost of the bill to $894 billion through 2019, CBO said.

House Democrats have seized on that net cost figure to claim that their bill is below President Barack Obama's upper limit which he set for health-care legislation of $900 billion.

The $1.055 trillion estimate also does not include $245 billion needed to stop Medicare payments to doctors from decreasing, which the House plans to address through separate legislation introduced Thursday.

...

More here: CBO Puts House Health Bill Total Cost At $1.055 Trillion

How much does this thing cost?

The House version of the health care reform bill has gone well above President Obama’s target of $900 billion:

House health care bill exceeds $1 trillion

By DAVID ESPO (AP) –

WASHINGTON — Health care legislation taking shape in the House carries a price tag of at least $1 trillion over a decade, significantly higher than the target President Barack Obama has set, congressional officials said Friday as they struggled to finish work on the measure for a vote early next month.

Democrats have touted an unreleased Congressional Budget Office estimate of $871 billion in recent days, a total that numerous officials acknowledge understates its true cost by $150 billion or more. That figure excludes several items designed to improve benefits for Medicare and Medicaid recipients and providers, as well as public health programs and more, they added.
...

And let’s not forget the stellar track record of government cost predictions.