quotable

"Once abolish God and the government becomes the God." -G.K. Chesterton

Friday, October 30, 2009

The Government as Goldilocks: If It Ain't Just Right, Tax It


The more Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and select Democrats meet behind closed doors to formulate their partisan version of health care reform, the more it starts to look like the government's version of Goldilocks. If they don't think your private health insurance coverage is just right, they're going to penalize you for it. And what is "just right"? Whatever the government arbitrarily decides it is. In fact, they're going to penalize just about everybody outside of government, because one assumes only government can meet their high standards of colossal waste and inefficiency. Think of your neighborhood association times a hundred. Thus, the House's new bill on health care, along with the Baucus bill, are setting the standard for Big Brother's intrusion into our private lives with endless fines and regulations.


Let's examine the absurdity of the proposed legislation in a little more detail. If you don't have health insurance, you will be fined. If you don't have enough health insurance (according to the government's strict regulations), you will be required to pay more to cover things you don't need or be fined. If you have too much health insurance, your benefits will be taxed as part of your income.


Just like there's no such thing as a free lunch, there's no such thing as free health care. But not only is it not free, no one is free under these plans to make their own choices. ObamaCare appears to come with more strings attached than the $700 billion of TARP money, which you may have noticed last week, resulted in mandatory government-enacted salary cuts of 50 to 90 percent for employees at bailed out companies. Just wait until 50 to 90 percent of your health care treatment gets cut by some unelected bureaucrat based on the same rationale.


The attacks on the private sector don't stop there. If you're a small business who can't afford to provide health insurance, you will be taxed. If you're a big business who doesn't provide enough health insurance, you will be taxed. If you're a business who provides too much health insurance, you will be taxed. If you're a private health insurance company that makes "too much" profit or spends "too much" on administrative costs, you will be fined. Somehow this all seems very bad for business. Good thing the stimulus bill created all those jobs, or I'd be worried about rising unemployment.


If you're a doctor or hospital, more of the medical devices you offer your patients will be taxed, from breast pumps to dialysis machines. When the government's taxing breast milk, suffice it to say we've moved well beyond the nanny state. In essence, the government will now own you.


Doctors who order "too many" tests will also be fined. Ten percent of doctors will be fined under this system every year, so there's no escaping the fine, even though tests are often ordered as a safeguard against medical malpractice lawsuits brought by trial lawyers (trial lawyers, of course, will not be fined). If you're a patient, you will end up paying more for everything as these expenses are passed down to the consumer.


If you're on Medicare, your benefits will be cut. If you're someone facing expensive treatment options or a possible terminal illness, you will be asked to take pain medicine and die quickly (Democrat Alan Grayson's favorite phrase) if the number of "quality years" you have left fails to meet the government standard.


If you're a state, you will be asked to pick up more of the tab for Medicaid, forcing state legislatures to make drastic cuts or raise taxes. And if you're a taxpayer, you will have less disposable income, less money to spend in your community and on your family.


The ObamaCare bills proposed so far can best be described as Government On Steroids, and the unintended consequences are just as dire. This is the beginning of a war against the autonomy of the individual. If ObamaCare passes, we will all be funding a new entitlement program doomed for bankruptcy, taxing ourselves to death while the big donors of the Democratic Party fleece America.


WHO GETS PENALIZED BY OBAMACARE?


Taxpayers

Patients

Businesses

Doctors

Hospitals

Medicare Recipients

Medical Device Manufacturers

Private Health Insurers

Those Without Insurance

Those With Not Enough Insurance

Those With Too Much Insurance

State Governments



WHO GETS REWARDED?


Unions

Trial Lawyers

Bureaucrats

(all Democratic Party special interests... coincidence?)


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