Are You Buying?

P.T. Barnum said it, "there's one born every minute." He wasn't talking genius here. People still must respond to the widow of the Nigerian bank mogul who died and she needs help getting a billion or two out of the country. They keep clicking on the links in the email. The cliche about buying bridges and waterfront property hasn't fallen into disuse. So, we can be pretty certain that some of the sheeple will be embracing the Bamster's health-care proposal.

Can anyone over the age of twelve really believe that the Messiah wants simply an alternative to private plans? That's what he says. He's going to establish some sort of Medicare-Young to help out those folks who can't get health insurance from their employer (they don't work usually) or on their own (they haven't got enough money after wine, crack and ciggies) or through their spouse employer (they don't do monogamy or traditional family either.) For those who are doing just fine, you'll still have your private options. Sure you will.

Here's an explanation of what this is about:

Competing With the Government

The inevitable conclusion is that private business cannot pay taxes to their competitor and succeed. You can't advertise or spend money on your business infrastructure if your competitor simply doesn't worry about such niceties. You can't pay providers if your competitor controls the reimbursement schedules which you must comply with. When your price is undercut, your customers will go to the government program until you wither away. Then the nation will have rationed care, controlled by a bureaucrat and paid for at rates totally unrelated to factors like costs or efficacy. MRI, PET, CT and similar will drop from our common medical lexicon. Surgery will be for the fortunate few and new technology pharmaceuticals will evaporate in the dusty research labs.

You're going to love it, that is if you buy into it.