ObamaCare is Meant to Increase Private Health Insurance and Medical Costs

ObamaCare was initially sold as a means to reverse or slow down the rate at which health care costs have been rising in the U.S.  It was always nonsense that this would be achieved, since the federal government has never had much success in managing the costs of any rather complex operation. It has a long history of managing medical programs specifically, whose costs have not only skyrocketed, but have caused the costs of the private health care sector to go up far more than they otherwise would have.  The claim that ObamaCare would bring down costs was simply a political lie told to ease its passage.  The intent, the purpose, of ObamaCare is to increase the costs of private health insurance to the point that most people cannot afford it.  Then, the People will demand that the government rescue them by providing a totally nationalized health care system.  This is the socialists ideal:  create the desperation and then appear as the champion of the suffering little guy.  To do this, socialism aims to pull us all down into economic poverty so that we will all feel we are little guys and helpless without the socialist state.

The initial ObamaCare bill will do a number of things at the minimum, which are designed to force costs upward.  The direct taxes on the health industry discussed are those from the Baucus conceptual plan and are likely to be worse in the final bill.  Among the forces designed to increase the cost of private health insurance are:

• The individual mandate will force more people to have health insurance, which will increase demand on the limited supply of health care workers, so prices will go up.  That old law of supply and demand cannot be denied.
• The government qualified plans will require many services to be covered which many people do not need, so they will have to pay more for services they will not use.
• More young people will have to subsidize older people in larger pools, which will help lower the costs for older people, but will leave younger people, who are usually lower earners, in more strained financial circumstances and prevent them from building wealth.
• Relatively affordable high-deductible plans will not be allowed.  Co-pays are also to be set at very low values.  Health Savings Accounts will no longer serve a purpose.  Those people who only need insurance for major medical expenses will have to pay more expensive insurance costs to cover almost every penny of their medical costs.
• Health insurance companies are being taxed $20 billion between 2013 and 2015 to be allowed to issue health insurance and to manage benefit plans for major medical coverage in those years.  This cost has to be passed on in the form of higher insurance premiums.
• Insurance companies will have to contribute $5 billion to a high-risk insurance pool which will exist until 2013 to cover uninsured individuals who have been denied health care coverage due to a pre-existing condition.  This cost will have to passed on to others these companies insure.
• Anyone manufacturing or importing prescription pharmaceuticals will have to pay in a share to create a contribution of $2.3 billion annually from 2010 for the Medicare SMI trust fund.  This cost will be passed on to the privately insured.
• Medical device manufacturer's and importers will have to pay fees totaling $4 billion annually.  Necessarily, medical devices will cost more for the privately insured.
• U.S. health insurance companies will have to pay fees totaling $6 billion annually.
• Clinical laboratories will have to pay fees totaling $750 million annually, thereby increasing the costs of medical tests for the privately insured.

It is clear that ObamaCare is trying to drive up our private health insurance costs well beyond the already high rates that Medicaid, Medicare, the regulatory costs of the FDA and NIH, the limitations on the numbers of doctors educated in medical schools, the already high costs imposed by state qualification requirements on health insurance, and the costs of excessive medical malpractice awards have done.

The People should be furious about the Obama and Democrat Congress lies that they are trying to reduce health care costs.  They are not.  They are only interested in causing the private sector of the health care system to fail, so they can force all Americans into medical dependency upon a socialist government.  Forcing the once proud American individual into submission before the ruling state is their purpose! This is clear and undeniable.