By Joe Roberts

We continue to be treated to half the editorial page dedicated to supporting Obamacare. Most recently, on July 22, David Post makes many claims.
I’d like to address the three most blatant: 1. Obamacare will save money. 2. Ex post facto indemnification of the sick or injured is “insurance.” 3. Obamacare is just like car insurance.
1. Rather than go into the silly games liberals play with numbers (such as balancing three years of expense against 10 years of income), I would ask the reader to use simple logic. You can’t provide extensive additional funding for millions of people without astronomical cost. Even if we believed their silly statistical models, has there ever been a government program that didn’t cost many times what was projected? It’s also claimed that cost will be reduced through elimination of waste, fraud and abuse. How many times have we heard this tired old defense used to justify spending money we don’t have? If we cannot pay for what we have now, can the answer be to create more of the same?
2. Insurance covering pre-existing conditions is an oxymoron. You can’t provide virginity insurance to a pregnant woman. Public support for the uninsurable may be a good cause. There are ways to address the issue without making a mockery of the insurance industry.
3. Unlike Obamacare, you don’t have to buy car insurance simply because you’re alive. In fact, there’s no law that requires anyone to buy car insurance. The law simply requires that you provide for the indemnification of people you may injure when driving. This can be done by posting a bond or putting funds in escrow. Most people find buying car insurance easier and cheaper. This applies only to people who drive. Many millions of people living in urban areas do not drive, and consequently don’t buy insurance. Among those who do buy insurance, careful drivers pay less. Those who have accidents pay extra. The more cost you incur for the insurance company, the higher your premium. If you have a really bad driving record (a pre-existing condition), insurance companies won’t sell you a regular policy. You are placed in an “assigned risk” group set up by the state. It is extremely expensive. You don’t have to “offset the cost of unsafe drivers,” as Mr. Post claims.
There are many other problems with Obamacare. Should I help pay for the insurance on your 25-year-old “children?” I do not (yet) pay for the insurance on your car. Why should I pay to ensure adults who happen to have living parents? Is this not saying “it’s a free ride — ’til you’re 26?”
Obamacare says if you have 50 employees, you must provide insurance for them. What about all the firms with 49 or fewer employees? Any employer with a lick of sense will consider alternatives to hiring his 50th employee — starting another company, working people harder, contracting out work, etc. Is this regulation likely to increase total employment?
For better or worse, Medicare and Medicaid have us in great financial trouble now. As they currently exist, they are not sustainable. The sine qua non of Obamacare is simply an expansion of Medicaid. Many physicians (and dentists) will not accept Medicaid patients now. They cannot afford to. If Obamacare continues as written, health care will be rationed. The old “death panel” comment was an overstatement, but the basic concept is in use today in other socialistic systems. And it will be used here.
Obamacare proponents like to say we are the only nation without single-payer (read socialized) medicine. Thank God. Rich or poor, there isn’t a better country to be in if you’re sick. We don’t have waiting lists for joint replacement surgery. We don’t have age limitations on medical procedures. Sick people from all over the world come here for help. How many Americans go elsewhere? And thankfully, unlike those other “progressive” countries, we aren’t yet bankrupt.
Mr. Post is right in saying Congress has voted down repeal of Obamacare repeatedly. Republicans want to keep the public aware of who supports Obamacare. The Democrats tremble every time they are forced to support Obamacare. They know what it will cost them in November.
Mr. Post wonders why seniors oppose Obamacare.They know the money to pay for the Medicaid extension will come from Medicare funds. They remember the first two lies told to us: “If you like your insurance, you can keep it,” and “If you like your doctor, you can keep him.” Seniors place more weight on what they see than what they hear. It’s a trait that grows as we age.
There are some good ideas in this monstrous package of Obamacare. Nancy Pelosi famously said we “had to pass it in order to know what is in it.” Well, through much political chicanery, it was passed. Now, we know all too well what is in it. The more we know, the less we like it. Once we get rid of it, we can look to passing some individual good laws that are fiscally sustainable.
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Joe Roberts is a retired college president who lives in Salisbury.
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