The Liberty Tree Lantern

Before U.S. Government foists this insanity on American taxpayers and health care recipients they need a psychological examination.  – - Capt. Karl

Health policy experts say guaranteeing coverage for all Americans may cost about $1.5 trillion over the next decade — more than double the $634 billion ‘down payment’ Obama set aside.

AP

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Your lungs may work just fine, but the estimated price for universal health care could take your breath away.

Health policy experts say guaranteeing coverage for all Americans may cost about $1.5 trillion over the next decade. That would be more than double the $634 billion ‘down payment’ President Barack Obama set aside for health reform in his budget.

About 48 million people are uninsured, and the problem is only expected to get worse because the cost of coverage keeps rising.

Still, administration officials have pointedly avoided providing a ballpark estimate for Obama’s fix, saying it depends on details to be worked out with Congress.

“It’s impossible to put a price tag on the plan before even the basics have been finalized,” said White House spokesman Reid Cherlin. “Here’s what we do know: The reserve fund in the president’s budget is fully paid for and provides a substantial down payment on the cost of the reforming our health care system.”

The potential for runaway costs is raising concerns among Republicans and some Democrats as Congress prepares to draft next year’s budget. The U.S. spends $2.4 trillion a year on health care, more than any other advanced country. And some experts estimate that a third or more of that goes for tests and procedures, rather than prevention and treatment.

“We shouldn’t just be throwing more money on top of the present system, because the present system is so wasteful,” said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee.

The health care plan Obama offered as a candidate would have cost nearly $1.2 trillion over ten years, according to a detailed estimate last fall by the Lewin Group, a leading consulting and policy analysis firm. The campaign plan would not have covered all the uninsured, as most Democrats in Congress want to do. But it is a starting point for lawmakers.

John Sheils, a senior vice president of the Lewin Group, said about $1.5 trillion to $1.7 trillion would be a credible estimate for a plan that commits the nation to covering all its citizens. That would amount to around 4 percent of projected health care costs over the next 10 years, he added.

The cost of covering the uninsured is “a difficult hurdle to get over,” Sheils said in an interview.

“I don’t know where the rest of the money is going to come from,” he added.  (I do.  Take a guess where the money is going to come from?  Let me give you a hint; It starts with the letters,,,  taxpayer earnings being robbed up to 90% of total earnings of the common “working man”.  “Free Stuff” from Government always costs, and dearly.)  – - Capt. Karl

Some of the leading advocates of coverage for all use cost estimates around $1.5 trillion.

“Honestly … we can’t do it for the $634 billion the president put in the reserve fund,” John Rother, public policy director for AARP, told an insurance industry meeting in Washington last week.

“In all likelihood, it will be over $1 trillion,” he added, citing his own estimate of $1.5 trillion.

Economist Len Nichols, who heads the health policy project at the New America Foundation, said guaranteed coverage will cost $125 billion to $150 billion a year when fully phased in.

White House budget director Peter Orszag told the House Budget Committee earlier this month that the president’s $634 billion fund is “likely to be the majority of the cost.” Roughly half of the money would come from spending cuts (U.S. Government Spending Cuts, Yeah Right!), and the other half from tax increases.  (No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this Earth. Federal employees number in the tens of millions, and federal, state, and local, one out of six of the nation’s work force is employed by the government. These proliferating bureaus with their thousands of regulations have cost us many of our constitutional safeguards. How many of us realize that today federal agents can invade a man’s property without a warrant? They can impose a fine without a formal hearing, let alone a trial by jury, and they can seize and sell his property in auction to enforce the payment of that fine.  And, then they ask, where is the money coming from?  - – Capt. Karl)

But whether the $634 billion represents 50 percent, 60 percent or 70 percent of the cost “will depend on the details of whatever is finally done (Isn’t that special that Government does not know what the F**k it is doing?  They don’t even know the cost of the UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE they are going to pass?  Sounds like the AIG TARP money going to executive bonus contracts to me. After all SOCIALIST Security and Medicare are $90 TRILLION DOLLARS in UNFUNDED liabilities, over the infinite horizon, why not FORCE Americans health care insurance into the same dire straights so that the whole damn works goes to hell in a hand basket?  -  – Capt. Karl) … as we move through the legislative process,” Orszag added. (Progress, did he say Progress?  Progress of what?  Withholding taxes, Payroll Taxes, Medicare Taxes all for the purpose of totally destroying the best health care on Earth.  Sounds sensable to any Congressman or Senator, doesn’t it?  – - Capt. Karl)

The overall cost matters because the expansion of health coverage is meant to be a permanent reform. That means future generations will have to bear the cost.  (Oh, you mean like SOCIALIST Security and Medicare at $90,000,000,000,000.00 Dollars in UNFUNED liabilities on us taxpayers, over the infinite horizon.  Isn’t that special?  – - Capt. Karl)

“We are dealing with huge numbers,” said David Walker, a former U.S. comptroller general and now head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a group that promotes fiscal responsibility. “We need to have a much better sense of what we are talking about doing, and whether or not it’s affordable and sustainable over time.”  (David Walker is a very honorable man, unlike the despotic tyrants in Congress and the Administration, and we all need to listen to him and learn from his knowledge and information for us.  – - Capt. Karl)