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The ‘Costs’ of Medical Care: Government control of health care will shift costs, not reduce them.
The Woodward Report ^ | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 11/09/2009 11:55:36 AM PST by thisisthetime

We are incessantly being told that the cost of medical care is “too high” — either absolutely or as a growing percentage of our incomes. But nothing that is being proposed by the government is likely to lower those costs, and much that is being proposed is almost certain to increase the costs.

There is a fundamental difference between reducing costs and simply shifting costs around, like the pea in a carnival shell game. Costs are not reduced simply because you pay less at a doctor’s office and more in taxes — or more in insurance premiums, or more in higher prices for other goods and services that you buy, because the government has put the costs on businesses that pass those costs on to you...

(Excerpt) Read more at thewoodwardreport.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: healthbill; healthcare; medicalcosts; obamacare

1 posted on 11/09/2009 11:55:38 AM PST by thisisthetime
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To: thisisthetime

May God Bless you, Dr. Sowell.

I would add that the costs of health care will not be merely shifted to the government, they will go up. Why? Because it’s not just taxes that will support the costs, it’s that today’s costs will be paid for with BORROWED dollars in more government deficit spending. Add on the interest rates, the devaluation of the dollar, and the squeezing out of private sector capital, and you have much more than mere cost shifting.


2 posted on 11/09/2009 12:00:15 PM PST by henkster (0bamanomics: The "Final Solution" to America's "Prosperity Question.")
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To: thisisthetime

Yes, it does shift costs. From those that have more money to those that don’t have as much. Nothing new, its already wealth transfer... this bill just turns the ratchet a bunch more notches.


3 posted on 11/09/2009 12:00:33 PM PST by C210N (A patriot for a Conservative Renaissance!)
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To: thisisthetime

This has never been about cost. It is about power.


4 posted on 11/09/2009 12:01:36 PM PST by edcoil (If I had 1 cent for every dollar the government saved, Bill Gates and I would be friends.)
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To: thisisthetime

This has never been about cost. It is about power.


5 posted on 11/09/2009 12:01:52 PM PST by edcoil (If I had 1 cent for every dollar the government saved, Bill Gates and I would be friends.)
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To: thisisthetime

The cost and any specific provisions are irrelevant! The only salient point is any version of federal health care is unconstitutional since Article 1 Section 8 does not specifically grant Congress the power to regulate health care. This is the point people need to drive home with their politicians!


6 posted on 11/09/2009 12:02:35 PM PST by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it! www.FairTaxNation.com)
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To: thisisthetime
Yeah, they'll be shifted to the evil rich!

Yeah!

7 posted on 11/09/2009 12:03:36 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Ask not what the Kennedys can do for you, but what you can do for the Kennedys.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

WHen the rich are made poorer, everyone will be ... rich!

/sarc


8 posted on 11/09/2009 12:07:07 PM PST by sono (Healthcare Reform isn't reform. It's a hostile takeover.)
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To: thisisthetime

This travesty of a bill is nothing more than a progressive transfer of wealth from working Americans to illegals and deadbeats, replete with jail time for those who disobey courtesy of the IRS.


9 posted on 11/09/2009 12:07:27 PM PST by IamConservative (I'll keep my money. You keep the change.)
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To: thisisthetime

Haven’t read the full article yet, but many health care providers are unable to simply pass along health care costs to the beneficiary. HC often is a different playing field— a strange, mixed and artificial marketplace. Margins are squeezed, and frequently losses swallowed whole. If Dr. Sowell delves into this I wouldn’t be too surprised, since he covers the industry quite well.


10 posted on 11/09/2009 12:07:44 PM PST by Dysart
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To: sono
WHen the rich are made poorer, everyone will be ... rich!

If rich people weren't so selfish, we could all be rich!

11 posted on 11/09/2009 12:12:22 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Ask not what the Kennedys can do for you, but what you can do for the Kennedys.)
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To: edcoil
BINGO!

Their end goal is to break private insurance companies, then create massive Government run and subsidized conglomerates like AIG. They will create the illusion that they are still “free enterprise” oriented but it will, in actuality, be nothing more than a cleverly disguised National Socialism, run by an Oligarchy. An ObaMao Oligarchy.

Before they are done, and if we cannot stop them, they will control virtually everything, from what we write and think on this forum, to what kind of production that industry will produce. Not to mention how much we will be allowed to earn.

12 posted on 11/09/2009 12:16:01 PM PST by PSYCHO-FREEP
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To: Dysart

Also important to note that the dilemma that’s presented to providers has consequences. Many are either exiting the industry or making plans to do so. Several complications will flow from this...we’ll see significant obstacles in patient access to services (an intentional-unintentional bit of rationing by uncle obammy) and an overall diminution in quality of care.


13 posted on 11/09/2009 12:22:38 PM PST by Dysart
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To: thisisthetime

I’m paying $660 a month for “company sponsored” coverage through Aetna, for 3 people, plus $20 co-pay, $40 for specialists. To whom are my costs going to shift?


14 posted on 11/09/2009 12:28:24 PM PST by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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