The above article consists of three pages of items that need to be dissected a bit further than the author(s) had the time, space, or likely the inclination for. I will attempt to fill in the rest of the information that was not included…
Let us begin with the title: “Democrats seek greater control over health insurance rates. Legislation would allow federal regulators to step in to stop premium increases when state agencies fall short.”
The argument has been made in recent months that Democrats are simply trying to “fix” the health care system. Judging by this title, Democrats want to “control” private insurance rates. (For those who aren’t paying attention – that is the very definition of Socialism). How effective has the government ever been in controlling the costs of anything? Gasoline? House prices? Education? Shall I go on? Why are Democrats so afraid of the Free Market? Why must they attempt to CONTROL everything? The ONLY OUTCOME of the government meddling in health care can be to drive prices upward.
How about the second sentence? “…when state agencies fall short” sounds an awful lot like the Federal Government usurping power from the states. Why would we allow federal regulators to take control of another function from the state government? Democrats seem to be afraid of State’s Rights on this issue, and a number of other issues….I have always wondered why?
“Congressional Democrats have begun pushing legislation giving government regulators greater authority to block big increases in health insurance premiums, kicking off what is expected to be a years-long process of revising and expanding their major healthcare overhaul.”
Just the sound of “giving government regulators greater authority” is enough to turn my stomach. What would be the goal of limiting the revenue of a private business? The only goal imaginable is to eventually drive that private business out of business. Why would Democrats want to drive health insurance companies out of business? Yea…you guessed the answer…so they can offer the competitor’s product as a monopoly. In this case, the only competitor would be Big Nanny’s Health Company funded by her Uncle Sam.
Why do you suppose the language “years-long process” was inserted? Wow…you guessed it, again! This gives the Democrats cover when the system implodes…they will always (for infinity) be able to claim that their plan is “fluid” – a work in progress – and may take hundreds of years to perfect. In the mean time, you just deal with the crappy product – because Democrats are in charge…they care the most…and they are fixing it !! These types of subliminal carrots are strategically placed throughout the news media to help Team Obama sell their message to the masses. If you tell a lie over and over, eventually it becomes the truth.
“Republican lawmakers and insurance industry leaders say the push for more regulation will not address rising medical costs, which many experts say are helping drive up premiums.”
Let’s break this down into some simple math. You sell widgets for $10 each. You buy each widget from a manufacturer for $8 each. You make $2 per widget profit. In that $2 profit, your fixed expenses are $1.75. You get to keep, and live on, .25 cents.
What happens when the wholesaler tells you widgets now cost $9 each? If you sell them for $10, you only make $1 in profit…but since your fixed expenses are $1.75…you are now losing money. Your only choices are to find another supplier to sell to you at $8 each, or raise your retail price to $11.00.
What if ALL the suppliers now charge $9 per widget, and Uncle Sam tells you can only retail your widget for $10 in order to be “fair” to your customers? Yep…you are officially out of business. The same thing happens to the “evil” insurance companies. (Yes, some are evil, and the free market would drive them out of business faster than Big Nanny…if she would allow some competition amongst the states.) The hospitals keep driving up costs (and they have their reasons). The hospital is the “supplier” in the above example. The “retailer” is the insurance company.
One of the main reasons the supplier (hospital) keeps raising rates is that as Americans, we are so unhealthy. If we would reduce demand, prices would go down. Stop going to the hospital for a case of sniffles. Stop taking drugs. Stop drinking and driving. Stop having unprotected sex and cranking out 8-10 kids. Stop drinking a 12-pack of high fructose corn syrup and eating 3 bags of cookies and 4 bags of potato chips every day. Stop smoking. Stop weighing 450 lbs. I hate to be rude (insensitive), but we are causing most of this problem because of our poor individual habits and choices. What is most annoying is that the people making the poor lifestyle choices are most often the people least likely to pay for services rendered. In essence, those who choose to be healthy must now pick up the tab for those who do not. In a world consumed by “fairness” can someone please tell me how it is fair that I must pay extra so another can pay less.
My liberal friends would argue that to a large degree, the healthy are already supplementing the health care costs for the unhealthy via the constant increases in the price of health care – someone, eventually, has to pay the bills. Good drivers must pay more in insurance premiums due to the bad drivers. Good people must pay to incarcerate bad people. Good students lose instruction time to unruly students. Those who push “tolerance” and “fairness” upon the rest of us often do a disservice to the majority of those they pretend to help. I grow weary of the tax-fattened parasites who live to suck the blood from society, at little or no expense to themselves. I grow wearier of the political class who enable them.
