Health Care You Can’t Believe In
This evening, President Obama signed an unprecedented expansion of the S-Chip program, a program he touts as providing health care to children who could not happen before. Though he is correct on that point, he is, of course, not telling the whole truth. Michael F. Cannon does tell the whole truth and it’s not very pleasant.
Congressional Democrats want to expand SCHIP to children in families of four earning up to $80,000 per year. The Congressional Budget Office reports that 77 percent of such children already have private health insurance.
In terms of actually improving health outcomes, SCHIP looks even worse. Economist Robert Kaestner and his colleagues conclude, “The proposition that health insurance is the cure for adverse health outcomes among poor and near-poor children has not been adequately demonstrated.” About SCHIP specifically, they write, “It is remarkable that there is so little empirical evidence to support so large an expenditure.”
Economists Helen Levy and David Meltzer write that there is “no evidence” that SCHIP and similar programs are a cost-effective way of improving children’s health. They observe that targeted health programs, policies that increase incomes, or even improved educational opportunities could deliver greater health improvements per dollar spent.
There’s plenty more at the link.
The real deal is that the S-CHIP program isn’t what the President and the Democratic party has told us it is. It discourages work, doesn’t provide good health care, and forces you to pay for more people who can afford their own health care than those who can’t. What it will do is raise your taxes, and it won’t be the first time this happens in the next four years. I’d think that should make us at least a little bit angry.
Again, our totalitarian government-loving elected officials have put another program into place whose main goal is to put more people under government control.
Oh, by the way? Hawaii already tried a program very similar to this one and it lasted all of seven months. Tennessee’s government health care system blew up in its face, too.
Other Posts of Interest:
- The Safety of Progressivism is the Safety of the Cage
- The British Canary is Very, Very Sick
- Two Tales of 50 Million Dollars.
Category: President Barack Obama, The Economy and Your Money, The Rise of the Nanny State
One part of me says "I'd never touch it"…the pride thing that says we can go it without government charity.
The other part of me says to listen to Saul Alinsky, and overwhelm the system in order to bring it down.
Decisions decisions…!