Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Obamacare Chaffs American Citizens



Today is the official day of the Obamacare fiasco.  Once again we are to live through the consequences of good intentions that most certainly will go bad.  Any time a government entity tries to implement price controls instead of allowing the free market to work, eventually leads to higher prices and shortages.

Democrats keep harping that Republicans are denying people access to affordable health care, when in fact it is their policies that are the real culprit.  The Cato Institute published a report in 2004 on the cost of health care regulations.  Here is an excerpt: 

"Based on consensus estimates about the impact of higher prices on how many would likely drop health insurance, this increased cost implies a 3.8 percent reduction in the demand for coverage. This translates into 6.8 million uninsured whose plight arguably might be attributed to excess regulatory costs, or roughly one in six of the average daily uninsured."

And as for fraud and abuse:

"Even though the government collects $2.1 billion in enforcement penalties (treated here as a transfer), the gross cost of health care fraud and abuse regulation is estimated to be $3.2 billion, inclusive of government regulatory costs, industry compliance costs, and efficiency losses from tax collection and regulatory costs. All industry compliance costs (including enforcement penalties) are treated as roughly equivalent to an excise tax."

Progressives love centralized authority.  Recently, Venezuela took over a toilet paper factory because of shortages; shortages which the Venezuelan government caused through price controls.  Now their citizens are walking around with chaffed asses.  Soon the American people will be chaffed too. 


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