Opinion

Editorial: Health bill won't deliver on promises


Published: November 7, 2009

The fundamental untruth behind the Democrats' proposals for health care reform is this: They claim they can insure more people, provide those insured with more coverage and do it all for less money.

And how can Democrats claim to be able to provide more insurance to more people for less money? Because, they say, government will eliminate the waste and fraud from health care that private industry cannot.

Anyone who has had any experience with the operations of government knows just how ludicrous those claims are. Few, if any, government programs live up to their initial promises. They have all ended up far more expensive than first thought. And government is the home of wasteful spending, fraud and abuse.

But this time, we are told, it's going to be different.

Don't believe it.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote, as early as today, on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 1,990-page health care reform bill, H.R. 3692. If passed, it will surely be a disaster for Americans. It will cause many to lose their employer-provided health care and dump them into a government-run plan of dubious quality. It will lead to government directed rationing of health care as the only real means to control costs. And it will add billions to the federal deficit that Americans cannot afford.

The Democrats say their bill will do none of these things. These are the lies politicians tell to get what they want. And what they want in this case is power, control over fully one-sixth of the American economy, right down to the tiniest detail, such as where on a food vending machine calorie counts must be posted (on "a sign in close proximity to each article of food or the selection button," H.R. 3692, p. 1516).

Scripps Howard columnist Deroy Murdock rightly states that the bill is "an all-you-can-eat banquet for federal busybodies" that "overflows with fresh regulations; 111 brand-new boards, agencies, and programs; and $572 billion in new taxes to finance all of the above."

The bill's official price tag is $1.2 trillion over 10 years. But that number is based on accounting chicanery that takes much of the funding needed to support the bill off-budget. Similarly, Congressional Budget Office claims that the bill would reduce the federal deficit are based on assumptions about political willingness to control spending that have no basis in history.

And for all this upheaval, it is estimated that millions of Americans will remain uninsured.

Expanding the availability of health insurance and the pursuit of industry reforms are worthwhile goals. But this bill goes way too far. It is too expensive, too intrusive and would force Americans to pay more for less health coverage.

Members of Congress should see H.R. 3692 for what it is — a bureaucratic monstrosity — and reject it.