If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until it is free.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) yesterday released its cost estimate on the House Democrats’ health care proposal and found that it will deepen the federal budget deficit by $239 billion over the next 10 years. To read this report for yourself follow this link. (link) Do people not think that the deficit is real money? Who do they think will pay the deficit? It will be paid for through taxes or through inflation.

Concern grows that healthcare overhaul won't cut costs
Even supporters of Obama's plan to overhaul the system worry that it's not focused enough on escalating medical bills, both for patients and for employers.

Los Angeles Times, By Noam N. Levey, July 13, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- Although still publicly beating the drums for President Obama's healthcare overhaul, representatives of some of the biggest players are beginning to express concern behind the scenes that it won't do enough about the major problem: runaway medical costs. (link)

Wrong Way on Health 'Reform'

By Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, Monday, June 15, 2009

The central cause of runaway health spending is clear. Hospitals and doctors are paid mostly on a fee-for-service basis and reimbursed by insurance, either private or governmental. The open-ended payment system encourages doctors and hospitals to provide more services -- and patients to expect them. It also favors new medical technologies, which are made profitable by heavy use. Unfortunately, what pleases providers and patients individually hurts the nation as a whole.

That's the crux of the health-care dilemma, and Obama hasn't confronted it. His emphasis on controlling costs is cosmetic. The main aim of health-care "reform" being fashioned in Congress is to provide insurance to most of the 46 million uncovered Americans. This is popular and seems the moral thing to do. After all, hardly anyone wants to be without insurance. But the extra coverage might actually worsen the spending problem. (link)

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