I laugh every time I see headlines bragging about the number of people enrolled in “Obamacare.” What choice to people have, after all? ”Buy this crappy insurance plan (that you wouldn’t buy unless you were forced), or face the wrath of the IRS bayonet.” And then the bragging begins about how many are enrolled.
This is no different than someone at the Department of Motor Vehicles bragging about the number of license plates attached to cars. Or as one of my sons pointed out, this is no different than a blood diamond mine overseer bragging about the low rate of child unemployment in Sierra Leone. What choice do these folks have, after all?
“The state is that entity whose ideas are so good that they have to be mandatory.” This is one of my favorite sayings. The truth is that over time, fewer and fewer people have assigned value to health insurance products in the marketplace, and consequently fewer people bought them. Here is the part, however, that many find hard to believe. The insurance industry did what many industries do, and faced with a smaller demand for their wares than they would like, they greased palms in D.C. to make the purchase of their product mandatory. Poof! “Obamacare.”
In order to “sell” this robbery, the D.C. spinners did what they always do and put on the “it’s all for your own good,” show. Who could possibly be against people dying in the streets without healthcare? As many lies as we have been told by government power brokers over the years, I continue to find it hard to believe that so many reflexively find these liars believable.
Some people believe that the government constantly lies but never about foreign policy or war. Some people believe that the government lies to protect corporate interests, but never about public welfare programs. I propose that we all entertain the idea that we are being lied to about everything anytime the government is involved. This doesn’t mean that everything is lies. Rather, I am recommending this as a starting, default position, just to be on the safe side.
Lew Rockwell has said that “..you only know for sure that something is true when a government official issues the official denial.” The government has even admitted to lying about the number of people enrolled in their mandatory “health insurance” scheme! Good old Jonathan Gruber has admitted to a massive deception scheme and confidence trick in connection with the passage of Obamacare. The big hospitals are getting richer, the big insurance carrier’s profits are soaring, and many continue to believe that Obamacare was all about the poor and uninsured.
In spite of everything, I remain optimistic that the competitive power of the free market will rescue us from the central planners’ attempts to line the pockets of their pals in the medical industrial complex. Although government-run health plans everywhere invariably resort to brutal rationing and euthanasia to balance their budgets, the increasing availability of high quality, affordable health care in the private marketplace in this country will serve as a refuge for those for whom Obamacare was ostensibly intended to help. We are already seeing this at our facility, where surgical procedures are regularly purchased for amounts far less than Obamacare’s high deductibles. If you think that the beneficiaries of these high deductibles are the insurance cronies whose claims exposure is minimized, you go to the head of the class.
High quality, affordable care with the preservation of patient choice. This is the goal we all share. I believe the competitive marketplace provides the only path to this goal and more evidence is accumulating that serves to vindicate this belief.
I would like to encourage the Obamacare believers to keep your eyes on the medical price deflation that is happening all over the country, here in Oklahoma, in particular. This is not due to bureaucratic price controls and rationing, but due to the healthy competition that has arrived in spite of all federal attempts to prevent the appearance of this vibrant marketplace. Faith in the marketplace is more well-founded, I believe, than faith in known and admitted liars.
G. Keith Smith, M.D.