Let’s see if we can summarize briefly what’s wrong with the bill:
- It leaves a nominally private health insurance industry in place, but the government will dictate what policies are sold, to whom, and at what price. In other words, it turns health insurance into a public utility. (UPDATE: Joe Biden says “We’re going to control the insurance companies.”)
- It bends the cost curve upwards.
- It costs a bazillion dollars.
- It funds abortion.
- It requires low-risk people to subsidize high-risk people.
- It imposes price controls, which invariably lead to shortages. (UPDATE: I’ve read that the price controls have been abandoned. I certainly hope so.)
- It denies individuals the right to decide for themselves whether to buy insurance.
- It imposes new taxes on medical devices and pharmaceuticals, thereby discouraging innovation.
- It sets the stage for health care rationing.
- It bans some health insurance policies.
- It imposes unjust and onerous taxes.
- It includes payoffs for influential states and interest groups. (Yes, still.)
- It is unconstitutional. (Interstate commerce, my foot. There isn’t any interstate commerce in health insurance.)
- It undermines public confidence in our democracy.
- It expands the power of the IRS.
- It raids student loans.
- It undermines Medicare by taking the savings from Medicare reforms and spending them elsewhere.
- It is designed to fail, thereby justifying future government action to meddle further.
- UPDATE: It creates a new funding cliff in Medicaid, similar to the one in Medicare.
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