Behind all the pages, baffles, recriminations, and special carve outs, the health care legislation we have before us stands as a huge giveaway to America’s insurance industry. The president and his minions in congress have given a group of “fat cats,” in the president’s wonderfully childish and hypocritical phase, more on which to dine.
- The bill would insist that all Americans buy health insurance, that is, give these companies business. Since most of those who have forgone insurance to date are young and healthy, these new customers would offer the most lucrative sort of business. Of course, the new law would also forbid the insurers from discriminating against those with pre-existing conditions, but since these people would constitute only a small part of the new customer base, it would be a small price for the companies to pay for the business.
- For those who cannot afford the price of their now required premium, the law would offer a subsidy from the public purse, that is the taxpayer would transfer funds to the insurers.
- The legislation would force an excise tax on luxury, so-called “Cadillac” plans, unless, of course, you are a member of some politically well-connected union, but that charge should hardly upset the insurers, since it would raise monies to pay for the otherwise lucrative new customers.
- For all the talk of historic, this bill takes care to continue the protection insurers have from competition from across state lines.
In the meantime, the new law would siphon funds from Medicare, a plan closer to socialized medicine, in order to better equip the authorities to subsidize all these new health insurance customers. If this works, the next thing Obama will do is help Detroit by requiring all Americans to buy a Chevy and then subsidize any who cannot afford the purchase with a special excise on successful car makers.
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