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Opinion
Sep. 25, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Expensive ideas

President Obama pushed all sorts of new health insurance regulations in his address to lawmakers this month. He said insurers "will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime." He said Congress would "place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses" and require insurers to cover "routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies." All this on top of a federal mandate that every American purchase health insurance or pay a steep penalty tax.

But providing health care consumers with all sorts of iron-clad protections on the back end -- no five-figure medical bills, guaranteed lifetime coverage, reimbursements for all the preventive care your doctor prescribes -- leaves insurers with only one way to absorb those expenses: big bills on the front end.

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    • Some liberals finally appear to be waking up to the fact that their vision of health care "reform" is going to drive up insurance premiums, which already have more than doubled over the past 10 years. And any legislation to regulate premiums on top of all the other new restrictions insurers will face would be a recipe for bankruptcy.

    "That would be a very substantial additional intervention in the marketplace," Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said of premium price controls. "I just don't think the support would be there for that kind of a change."

    It's encouraging that Senate Democrats seem to understand there's no such thing as a free lunch. But why on earth would they continue to claim the purpose of their health care agenda is reducing medical costs when their plans clearly won't? Aside from adding almost $1 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years to subsidize coverage, it will force tens of millions of healthy people to pay more for comprehensive insurance policies they don't need.

    If Democrats are serious about reducing medical costs, they'll work to extract government from health care by eliminating insurance mandates, thereby giving consumers a broader range of coverage choices.

    If they stay on their current course, however, we'll know they're more concerned with their own power.

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    cosmo wrote on September 25, 2009 06:33 PM: They could also hire a terrorist to help write themselves a stimulus bill.


    Yo LSD Mandingo wrote on September 25, 2009 04:24 PM: Maybe the 38 million should earn some $$ the old-fashioned way- By having William Ayers help them write a book.


    Kelso wrote on September 25, 2009 04:06 PM: Mike if we choose to go to jail will we get the free health insurance with out the fee that we will go to jail for not paying that Obama says is not a tax?


    Mike wrote on September 25, 2009 02:51 PM: If you don't buy health insurance, you can go ti JAIL!

    ----------------------------
    Ensign receives handwritten confirmation

    This doesn't happen often enough.

    Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

    Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."

    LOL - The Nanny state is coming!!! Can't wait to see the Dem political hacks spin this one!

    http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0909/Ensign_receives_handwritten_confirmation_.html?showall


    Guru wrote on September 25, 2009 01:59 PM: I care about America's fiscal health, which makes me a Right-wing nut, anarchist, evil person! The bickering seems to come down to one concept: Accountability. The bickering over accepting it or shifting it onto another.

    Note: the Democrat party requires little more than a pulse to receive social benefits. (Heck, sometimes I wonder if a pulse is necessary). The Republican party generally requires more.

    Note: every Person is an open Capitalist or closet Capitalist, and desires wealth. Which are you?


    thejerk wrote on September 25, 2009 01:45 PM: ILIKE Mansauce

    You are nuttier than squirrel dung


    randomman wrote on September 25, 2009 01:20 PM: The same extreme left wing politicians that are trying to force this public (single payer) option/system on us will live in the life of luxury and have the best of the best healthcare for free for themselves and their family for the rest of their life.

    Anything the liberals force on us, even though every true survey shows we don’t want it, should have to use it themselves.


    Miles Monroe wrote on September 25, 2009 12:32 PM: LCDR Mandingo

    Bill Gates and Warren Buffett got rich doing one thing, working hard. I would posit that is probably the same way that Robert Johnson made his fortune (BET Founder) and Oprah Winfrey made hers.

    If I was one of those 38 million colored folks who aren't making what they want, I'd start studying how people like Buffett, Winfrey and Johnson made their fortune and copy their methods. But I guess it's easier to just complain about it.


    Kelso wrote on September 25, 2009 11:28 AM: The government option will not lower the cost and it will end the personal doctor patient relationship it will also have the goal of becoming a single payer system (per Obama’s exact words)
    The government has never lowered the cost of anything it has taken over, it will create new problems, it will higher more expensive government workers to run and oversee the industry, it will lead to rationing, it will lead to lower quality doctors, less doctors, less medical advancement, government will be liable on many lawsuits, you will without a doubt have a Washington patrician bureaucrat making healthcare decisions that affect you and your family (a group like ACORN would be glad to step in and help), terms like affirmative action and reparations will be used in rationing care, transplants…

    If anyone really cared about lowering costs they would address the following issues

    Lawsuits
    Open insurance companies and people to be able to buy/sell insurance outside their state
    Remove mandatory coverage allow for people to insure only what they want/can afford/need
    Deregulation of the industry (not deregulation of care standards)

    Democrats are silent on these issues which prove this is a power grab not a solution.


    Poor Fred wrote on September 25, 2009 11:21 AM: Fred can't originate thought. It's been indoctrinated out of him. He is just a gullible mass of oxygen-wasting,cut and paste flesh. Quick Fred! Run to Huffington to see what you think!


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