Did I say 1.3 trillion for the ObamaCare idiocy? Was I WAAAAAAY off or what?
Health Systems Innovations Network, a consulting group, went ahead and estimated the full cost of a bill that included the subsidies and Medicaid expansion, and reduced the number of uninsured by 99 percent. With these assumptions, they estimated (pdf) the cost at a staggering $4 trillion over 10 years, resulting in the shift of 79 million Americans to government-run health care. The report does not include possible tax increases or spending offsets, but notes that, “this would be a challenging proposal to finance with budget neutrality.”
And now the Democrats are getting a bit worried and have given the folks with common sense an opening to fight back:
The Senate Finance Committee is delaying its first public drafting session on major health care legislation until after the July Fourth recess, a lengthy setback but one that even Democrats say is critically needed to let them work on reducing the costs of the bill.
The Finance Committee’s bill is believed to have the best chance of bipartisan support. The drafting session had been scheduled for Tuesday. But new cost estimates by the Congressional Budget Office on health care proposals came in much more expensive than expected, emboldening critics and alarming Democrats.
Congressional Democrats and the White House are scrambling to regain their footing after a series of setbacks has stalled political momentum to reform the nation’s healthcare system.
~~~The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee postponed the markup of its healthcare reform bill by one day, to Wednesday. On the eve of that markup, the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce publicly ripped the bill.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) initially planned to release his bill Wednesday, but he has pushed back his timetable because of cost estimate concerns.
“Will we have something out tomorrow? Not sure,” Baucus said Tuesday. “Thursday or probably Friday,” he added.
Perhaps more importantly, the unity that Democrats touted earlier this year has cracked. As conservatives lambaste Democrats, liberal healthcare groups are not rushing to their defense because so many questions about the legislation have not been answered.
Of course with the MSM still behaving like Obama’s own mouthpiece it will be difficult, but not impossible, to stop the idiocy:
ABC is refusing paid ads for its health care program at the White House. Thus they’re refusing even a paid-for alternative viewpoint.
We requested the rates to buy a 60 second network spot immediately preceding the broadcast of the Town Hall meeting. We would have produced a spot specifically for this program.
Here is statement from Rick Scott, chairman of Conservatives for Patients Rights.
“It is unfortunate – and unusual – that ABC is refusing to accept paid advertising that would present an alternative viewpoint for the White House health care event. Health care is an issue that touches every American and all potential pieces of legislation have carried a pricetag in excess of $1 trillion of taxpayers’ money. The American people deserve a healthy, robust debate on this issue and ABC’s decision – as of now – to exclude even paid advertisements that present an alternative view does a disservice to the public. Our organization is more than willing to purchase ad time on ABC to present an alternative viewpoint and our hope is that ABC will reconsider having such viewpoints be part of this crucial debate for the American people. We were surprised to hear that paid advertisements would not be accepted when we inquired and we would certainly be open to purchasing time if ABC would reconsider.”
And as Ed Morrissey notes, the Obama camp is actually helping to kill this crap:
Meanwhile, the Administration hasn’t been completely absent from the work on the bill — but their contribution may hurt more than it helps. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tried explaining that a public plan would help competition, but obviously doesn’t understand markets or competition:
In an interview with The Associated Press, Sebelius said that President Barack Obama does not want to drive health insurers out of business, but make them more competitive by offering working families and small businesses the option of a public plan without the high overhead costs of marketing, administration and profits.
“I think there is a lot of understanding that the private market has really failed to provide affordable coverage to Americans,” Sebelius said. The industry has had “a lot of opportunities” to get rid of coverage restrictions and other unpopular policies, Sebelius said, and really “hasn’t served Americans very well.”
Sebelius apparently doesn’t understand that markets provide competition, and government stifles it. This clueless statement assumes that the “private market” is a single entity rather than a series of competitors working in a government-regulated market, competing for customers. If competition exists between the government and the “private market” as a monolithic entity, the government will prevail — which is exactly the argument Obama’s critics have made in casting the public option as a Trojan horse for single-payer nationalization. This statement couldn’t be more idiotic if Joe Biden had said it.
Hell, it wasn’t just a month and a half ago that a Obama Democrat admitted ObamaCare will kill private insurance:
See author page
my boss has said if they tax her she will lower our commisions, we are offered no insurance now. we have 2 employees uninsured because the rest of us have it through our spouses.
“Democrats are getting a bit worried”, “are scrambling”???:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/120890/Healthcare-Americans-Trust-Physicians-Politicians.aspx
…And the House Republicans response: a four-page outline of their health care reform plan that Roll Call states is “pretty thin”.
Who is really worried and scrambling?
Herman, We should All be scrambling to notify our Elected Reps that throwing Trillions of Dollars at Team Obama’s “Social Experiment” is unacceptable and beyond any sense of fiscal responsibility. Team Obama flakes don’t have a clue as to the real cost of anything. His “We’re Out of Money Already” statement should ring a bell for all Americans.
Wake Up America!
If China got itchy for cash tomorrow and cashed in their bonds, the official language of the US would be Chinese, in other words they would Own the US. Not fantasy, Fact.
Obamacare is a Social Experiment that is ill conceived and total BS.
Soon we will have Health care on a par with Cuba and an economy that will more resemble Somalia than the one You know or were raised in. It’s time to put the brakes on this crap. The USA is not a damn Science Fair Project. Any time the Government takes over private enterprise it fails, waste fraud and abuse prevail. Fannie & Freddie are prime examples. The IRS took over a Sporting House outside Reno, NV a few years back and couldn’t ever run a whorehouse and break even.
Social Security is broke. Medicare is broke. States and Cities are in the edge of bankruptcy because big government is killing the private sector with irresponsible and irrelevant regulation.
Meddling in things that You don’t understand or hold any expertise in has predictable results and never a good outcome.
Call your Reps and tell them not No but Hell No!
Yeah, you should and will “scramble”, but keep in mind a pubic, medical, and political majority do not trust your ‘scramblings.’
EARTH TO LEFTIES. WAKEY WAKEY. TIME TO ARISE FROM YOUR SLUMBER
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-536-Civil-Liberties-Examiner~y2009m2d23-Obamas-economic-policies-called-fascist
or is it a drug induced coma?
@herman:
Let’s look at Homer’s bloviating…
“…but keep in mind a pubic, medical, and political majority do not trust your ’scramblings.’”>
What exactly is a “pubic[sic?], medical and political majority?” [no fair asking Woopie Goldberg] And where is the “evidence” that clearly show what they do and do not “trust?”
He’s just throwing our words back at us, along with his made up assertions that we are wrong. They NEVER give proof of anything. They just “know” they are right, but haven’t a clue about what constitutes being “right” because they are ALWAYS WRONG!
Yet, without any reasoning, or facts, we are to “keep in mind” the drek he spews at us?
Come on, homer, get a clue. Meet us halfway, and give us some facts to back up your assertions. Come on, fella, you can do it …if you really know what you are talking about.
herman, All of them. Your partisan crap is part of the problem. All of Them. Is your lobotomy reversible or did they lie to you about that too? Trillions are something You can’t count on your fingers and toes so you can’t imagine that, Eh?
Dr Sanity weighs in…
http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2009/06/this-time-i-dont-care-anymorelet.html
…as does the AMA…
http://scaredmonkeys.com/2009/06/16/not-everybody-likes-obama-obamamessiah-booed-by-doctors-at-ama-event/
First comment there does some simple arithmatic, and makes a very interesting point.
the year is 2050
USA is a socialized, balkanized zone. People live substandard, highly regimented lives.
No opportunity to excel or advance.
Class lines have become merged. Groups become more important than individuals.
Life became expendable in pre-birth, birth, sickness and old age.
Aparatchicks, Czars and courts become the Emporer’s unelected enforcers.
Dissent is not tolerated. Talk radio is nixed for “community standards”. Religion gets marginalized and the state becomes the quasi religion.
Enviromentalism becomes a vessle for socialism and civil re-engineering
Success is punished. Failure is rewarded and coddled.
Welcome to hell
Expand Medicaid? Are they out of their friggin’ minds? Medicaid is the most fraud ridden & problematic program in all of government – with a fifty year history of just exactly that. Medicaid (and Medicare) already pay substantially less than either any other insurance program or cash payers and providers wait extended periods of time for that pittance. A wait of more than a year to be paid is not unusual. Medicaid is SO problematic for providers that many have either discontinued accepting Medicaid patients entirely or have simply stopped taking new patients.
If the Obama “administration” thinks they are going to force doctors to accept even more Medicaid patients than they already serve, they are whistling Dixie in the dark. Nobody can force someone to practice medicine. Care providers across the spectrum will leave the medical professions in droves. Note: we already have a fairly severe shortage of medical personnel in certain specialties (OB-GYN for one) and fields like nursing.
REALLY BAD IDEA!
For “$4 trillion over 10 years” you could probably get most of these “uninsured” people to take a permanent” vacation in Bermuda, just like the Uighurs.
OBAMA IS EVIL, IT’S AS SIMPLE AS THAT….
@Curt
Of course ABC is refusing to run paid ads. You don’t run other advertisements during an infomercial.
@Herman
There is no such thing as a pubic poll. Although many have been accused of it, no one’s pubic is actually capable of making decisions, but may only provide the individual with an uninformed advisory opinion, which most of the time should be treated as bad advisement. (That if followed, could lead to incarceration, social disease or pregnancy.)
“Public poll” is perhaps the term are looking for, We note that as usual you provide no supporting facts. Polls are little more than unscientific statistics compiled to support a particular conclusion.
An Obamacare plan would be in direct competition with the health insurance industry. There would be absolutely no reason for employers to set-up enrollment in private insurance plans for their employees, once a government system is instituted. If you want to know how well government managed health care is, ask a Veteran. Look at how current government offices work and consider whether you want health care to run like the DMV, Post Office, Etc… (Insert any other government agency here.)
Here are the big factors of Government managed health-care:
(1) There is that there is no way to pay for it. (Zip, zippo, the pockets are empty, no one will loan us the money.)
(2) Once instituted, those in Washington DC who refuse to do anything to staunch illegal immigration, will make certain that illegals will also be eligible. As experienced in California’s health care system, “undocumentated” individuals can break the back of the system.
(3) It can not happen without rationing of health care: Waiting lists, qualification screening via insensitive clerks who don’t know medicine and who don’t care about the patient, sub-standard medicine, the draconian cutting off of treatment by social-political government bureaucrats. (Too Old, Too bad. No Smokers. Abortion instead of counseling for teens. If you are diagnosed with cancer, that sucks but the govenment will help with your funeral planning.)
Then of course there are the other perils. (Government sponsored [CIA=Project:MKULTRA, FBI=COINTELPRO] experimentation on unsuspecting patients.) You can not trust the government not to pull other such crap on it’s citizens.
@herman:
It’s not looking as rosy as you think:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/healthcare/june_2009/41_favor_public_sector_health_care_option_41_disagree
You have to credit Obama for some political smarts. He came into office at a time of financial crisis and was able to get people to swallow the idea of trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye could see. Once that pattern was established a new program here and a new program there costing trillions more seems like no big deal.
Also, the way they have carved up health care reform into several packages will confuse the public about the total cost and scope. They have so many trillion dollar spending boondoggles floating around that people will think they are all one and the same.
“House Republicans presented a four-page outline of their health care reform plan Wednesday but said they didn’t know yet how much it would cost, how they would pay for it and how many of the nearly 50 million Americans without insurance would be covered by it.” – Roll Call
Same as it ever was…
But we wanna be as great as not-so-great Britain
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1019/p04s01-woeu.html
>>As experienced in California’s health care system, “undocumentated” individuals can break the back of the system. >>
Kind of gives the expression “The world awaits…” a whole new meaning…