Massachusetts' Obama-like Reforms Increase Health Costs, Wait Times | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary

Massachusetts' Obama-like Reforms Increase Health Costs, Wait Times | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary: "If you are curious about how President Barack Obama's health plan would affect your health care, look no farther than Massachusetts. In 2006, the Bay State enacted a slate of reforms that almost perfectly mirror the plan of Obama and congressional Democrats.

Those reforms reveal that the Obama plan would mean higher health insurance premiums for millions, would reduce choice by eliminating both low-cost and comprehensive health plans, would encourage insurers to avoid the sick and would reduce the quality of care."

"The most sweeping provision in the Massachusetts reforms — and the legislation before Congress — is an "individual mandate" that makes health insurance compulsory. Massachusetts shows that such a mandate would oust millions from their low-cost health plans and force them to pay higher premiums.

The necessity of specifying what satisfies the mandate gives politicians enormous power to dictate the content of every American's health plan — a power that health care providers inevitably capture and use to increase the required level of insurance.

In the three years since Massachusetts enacted its individual mandate, providers successfully lobbied to require 16 specific types of coverage under the mandate: prescription drugs, preventive care, diabetes self-management, drug-abuse treatment, early intervention for autism, hospice care, hormone replacement therapy, non-in-vitro fertility services, orthotics, prosthetics, telemedicine, testicular cancer, lay midwives, nurses, nurse practitioners and pediatric specialists.

The Massachusetts Legislature is considering more than 70 additional requirements.

Those requirements can increase premiums by 14 percent or more. Officials further increased premiums by imposing new limits on cost-sharing."

"One way insurers can avoid the $50,000 patients is to drop benefits those customers find attractive. Shelby Rogers is a 12-year-old girl with spinal muscular atrophy, whose parents chose an Aetna plan through the price-controlled health insurance exchange for federal workers. Last year, Aetna announced it would drop coverage for Shelby's 12-hour-a-day nurse, who, among other things, helps Shelby avoid bedsores by turning her over at night. An Aetna spokesman explained the reason was to avoid offering a benefit that causes the sickest patients to flock to the plan.

Over time, as mandates eliminate low-cost options and price controls eliminate comprehensive options, both the Massachusetts and Obama reforms will march consumers into a narrow range of health plans.

As goes choice, so goes quality. Statistics on waiting times for specialist care in Massachusetts read like a dispatch from Canada. In 2004, Boston already had the longest waits among metropolitan areas. By 2009, waits had generally shortened in other metro areas (average wait: less than three weeks) but lengthened in Boston (average wait: seven weeks), according to the Merritt Hawkins survey."

"Massachusetts has reduced the share of its population that lacks coverage from an estimated 8.3 percent in 2006 to an estimated 2.6 percent by June 2008. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican who signed the Massachusetts reforms into law, boasts that "no other state has made as much progress in covering their uninsured."

Yet that achievement carries an exorbitant price tag: at least $2.1 billion this year, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a figure that doesn't even include the cost of the additional coverage discussed above. Since Massachusetts has covered just 432,000 previously uninsured residents, the cost of covering a previously uninsured family of four — at least $20,000 — is well above the average cost of an employer-sponsored family policy (about $13,000)."

Voting until They Get It Right in the European Union | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary

Voting until They Get It Right in the European Union | Doug Bandow | Cato Institute: Commentary: "When it comes to the European Union, any vote to increase authority in Brussels is viewed as final. Any vote against consolidating power is treated as merely temporary.

The Lisbon Treaty is the perfect example of such a power grab. Among other things, it shifts responsibilities from national parliaments to European parliament, reduces the number of areas where unanimity is required (eliminating national vetoes), creates a president as a person (as opposed to rotating presidencies for nations) and creates a foreign minister to push a continental foreign policy.

In June 2008, Ireland voted against the treaty. Since the agreement requires unanimous support, the referendum theoretically killed the attempt. However, the European elite insisted that Ireland vote again. Dublin will hold a revote Oct. 2."

"Spanish EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia claimed that it's not "very democratic" to hold a referendum on complicated issues like the Lisbon Treaty. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble declared, "A few million Irish cannot decide on behalf of 495 million Europeans.""

The Second American Revolution | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Second American Revolution | Nat Hentoff | Cato Institute: Commentary: "'For generations, we doctors have promised our patients that medical advances will allow us all to live longer, more comfortable lives. Now that these results are finally arriving, 'health-care reform' — or 'insurance reform' (as our would-be health czar now calls it) — could snatch the rug out from under us.'

If the president succeeds in having Congress enact into law a national federal council to decide the most cost-effective medical care, those national standards will necessarily override which specific care can be most effective for each individual patient. Is expressing that concern, even loudly — about being lost in the abstract whole — what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls 'un-American' as she scorns these citizen eruptions by latter-day sons and daughters of liberty?"

The Misery Index: A Reality Check | Steve H. Hanke | Cato Institute: Commentary

The Misery Index: A Reality Check | Steve H. Hanke | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The data in the misery index chart speak loudly. Contrary to left-wing dogma, the Reagan 'free-market years,' were very good ones. And the Clinton years of Victorian fiscal virtues – when President Clinton proclaimed in his January 1996 State of the Union address: 'the era of big government is over' – were also very good ones."

Like Your Health Plan? Read This | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Like Your Health Plan? Read This | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "If your current health insurance doesn't meet all those requirements, you won't be immediately forced to drop your current insurance for a government-specified plan. But you would be required to switch if you lose your current insurance or 'if significant changes are made to the existing health insurance plan.'

More critically, for the 70 percent of us who get our insurance through work, those plans would all have to satisfy the government's benefit requirements within five years.

More likely, your employer will simply find that the increased cost and administrative burden is not worth it, and will dump you into the government-run 'public option.'"

Campaign For Liberty — Tim Nerenz Health Care Town Hall Speech

Campaign For Liberty — Tim Nerenz Health Care Town Hall Speech: "Here are two changes that Congress could write in one page and pass in a day that would cut out most of that wasted 40%. 1) Indemnify providers against lawsuits in which there is no criminal negligence alleged, and 2) eliminate 3rd party payer by using Health Savings Accounts to pay providers directly. That takes two of the biggest snouts out of the trough."

"President Obama promised my employees they could still choose private insurance if we had a public option. Sadly it won't be up to either of them. The House Bill levies a payroll tax of 8% on employers who don't provide health care benefits. That is less than half of the cost of a decent insurance premium; it is a simple business decision to drop coverage and pay the tax.

Businesses don't have the luxury of dealing with the government that is promised, we must confront the one that is practiced. Don't blame the players when the refs change the rules.

We all know what improves quality, reduces cost, and expands selection - choice and competition. Markets don't work perfectly, but they work - we can't say the same for government interventions. What keeps the small town auto mechanic honest? It's not the policeman or the priest - it's the second auto mechanic."

The Government's Cooked Books - Jacob Shreffler - Mises Institute

The Government's Cooked Books - Jacob Shreffler - Mises Institute: "For example, if I write myself a signed and sealed letter saying that I owe myself $1,000,000 by next year, that letter does not constitute a contract, a credit instrument, or any legal claim whatsoever. I cannot reasonably claim that I'm managing a million-dollar asset. It cannot properly be placed on my balance sheet as an asset or a liability. Yet the United States handles its accounts in just this way."

Hey, Mr. President, Leave Those Kids Alone | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Hey, Mr. President, Leave Those Kids Alone | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "One of the plans envisioned teachers making kindergartners write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. After parents rightly recoiled from that recommendation, the DOE tried to throw it down the memory hole, deleting it from their Web site.

Given some of the cultish questions that survived DOE's hasty revision, however, concerned parents can be pardoned a few overheated references to Kim Il-Sung:

How will [President Obama] inspire us?'

What is President Obama inspiring you to do?

Why is it important that we listen to the president and other elected officials?

These are question-begging questions, especially if you're one of those sensible Americans of all ages who aren't particularly inspired by President Obama, and who aren't convinced that listening raptly to elected officials is the best possible use of your time."

ACORN Officials Videotaped Telling 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' How to Lie to IRS - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

ACORN Officials Videotaped Telling 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' How to Lie to IRS - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com: "If the girls are under age 16, the ACORN staffer says on the tape, then they are not legally allowed to work in the state, regardless of what they do.

'So it's like they don't even exist?' 'Kenya' asks.

'Exactly,' the ACORN staffer replies. 'It's like they don't even exist.'"

'Public Option' Unlimited But Paid For, Leaving Number-Crunchers Perplexed - Political News - FOXNews.com

'Public Option' Unlimited But Paid For, Leaving Number-Crunchers Perplexed - Political News - FOXNews.com: "Speaking Thursday, Obama repeated his claim that the cost of the plan -- estimated at $900 billion over 10 years -- will not add to the deficit."

It costs money but won't add to the deficit? I have no confidence that the government could pull that off.