Clintonian Socialism

In our present political discourse misinformation concerning the supposed healthcare crisis abounds. All this ceaseless bloviating by political elites is part of a concerted effort to prolong the socio-fascist regime that this country has been suffering under since the days of FDR’s tyrannical reign. Nothing else can explain the deliberate evasion of the obvious and bountiful evidence which suggests that the ‘healthcare crisis’ in this country is the direct result of government policies.

Nearly everyone agrees that the major problem with our healthcare system is that costs, particularly health insurance premiums, are too high for millions of people, who as a result choose to forgo coverage.

However, most of the so called ‘experts’ have failed to demonstrate why costs are as high as they are, so I will make an attempt.

Our health care system can be classified as one that is funded by third parties. These third parties consist of employers- who provide health insurance for their employees- and the federal and state governments- who provide health insurance for millions by way of programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and S-CHIP. Such a system disconnects consumers of healthcare services from much of the actual cost of these services and, therefore, they consume more than they would if they had to foot the entire bill. This over consumption of healthcare services increases the cost of healthcare and as a result there is a commensurate increase in health insurance premiums. Additionally, Medicare and Medicaid are notorious for under compensating healthcare providers for services rendered; and healthcare administrators offset this deficit by pushing these costs onto consumers.

Another major source for high health insurance premiums is onerous government regulations. A study by Christopher J. Conover, of Duke University, demonstrates that such regulations impose a hidden tax of $169 billion on the health insurance industry which is passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums.

Health insurance costs are high because of actions taken by the government; however the solutions peddled by the political elites on both sides of the aisle ignore this fundamental reality. The worst example of this disregard is Senator Hillary Clinton’s health insurance plan. Her plan would impose many new and onerous regulations on health insurance firms, which would further increase the cost of health insurance. For example, firms would be disallowed from discriminating against people who have previous conditions which would reduce the cost of health insurance for people who are unhealthy but this would increase the cost for everyone else.

Senator Clinton’s plan would also expand the third party payer system in three ways: by extending Medicare to the nearly elderly, by forcing firms to either pay a fine or provide their employees with health insurance and by establishing a public insurance pool that would operate as Medicare does but would cover those who do not want to buy private insurance.

Much of Senator Clinton’s plan would drive up health insurance costs throughout the economy. How ironic that the solution to the high price of health insurance is to adopt ‘reforms’ that drive up the price of health insurance.

It appears to me that a grand scam is being visited upon the public for a very particular reason. Senator Clinton’s vision of the proper role of the state in society was forged in the misty furnaces of the radical sixties and the result is that Senator Clinton like many of her hippy brethren see the state as both the progenitor and the protector of all that is good in the world.

Therefore, Senator Clinton probably anticipates that her proposal, if enacted, will greatly increase the cost of health insurance and as a result a massive number of people will flee the quasi-free healthcare market and seek refuge in her ‘public plan’.

As I see it, Hillary’s grandiose plan to save us from the coming healthcare crisis will lead to this country becoming ensnared in the crushing tentacles of Clintonian socialism.

*written by Jacob Roundtree