James Pethokoukis » Blog Archive » Why Obamacare may be flatlining | Blogs |

6:27 pm GMT
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From the comments:

If a subsizied, very inexpensive government plan is offered, it will drive health insurance companies out of business. The biggest market for private insurers is corporate group plans. There is no way private insurers can compete head-to-head with a massive taxpayer subsidy. The subsized government plan will be much cheaper, so all the companies looking to save money on employee benefits will dump their current health insurance companies and flock to the government plan. As the vast majority of their business dries up overnight, health insurance companies will quickly be forced into bankruptcy. Those that are ‘too big to fail’, like Kaiser and Blue Cross, will likely receive a GM-like bailout/buyout package. The result will be most people getting their health insurance either directly from the government, or through a government-controlled health insurance company. Likewise, people who must pay for health insurance out of their own pocket will flock to the cheap government plan. Only the wealthy, who can afford expensive high-end health insurace from the few remaining private companies will be able to escape the government system.

With the Kennedy plan, the government will already be writing the rules on what must be covered. With the above scenario, they will also control most of the cashflow in the entire healthcare system. If you write the rules and control the money, you control the whole system. Healthcare providers will be squeezed even more than they are now under Medicare, and the quality of care will suffer greatly. This is our future if Obamacare passes.

I would add that once it controls the medical system, the state power will become impossible to challenge, just as in Canada or Europe, where the serfs will permit the state anything, as long as their health “benefits” are left untouched.

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