The Cost Of Free Care
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, March 18, 2009 4:20 PM PT
ibdeditorials.com
Medicine: Establishing universal government health care might cost as much as $1.5 trillion, according to one new estimate. And what'll we get? As usual, the sorry British system provides another glimpse.
After the administration said in February that it would set aside a $634 billion "down payment toward a more efficient health care system," White House budget director Peter Orszag said that amount was "likely to be the majority of the cost."
But some observers believe that will not be nearly enough to cover President Obama's ambitions.
John Sheils, a senior vice president of Lewin Group consultants, estimates the cost will be roughly $1.5 trillion to $1.7 trillion over 10 years. Len Nichols, an economist who heads the health policy project at the New America Foundation, reckons that the cost of guaranteed coverage will run $125 billion to $150 billion a year.
John Rother, public policy director at the American Association of Retired Persons, a group that would benefit from low-ball estimates, also figures that the program will take $1.5 trillion across a decade.
These, of course, are early estimates. If history is any guide, the real costs will be higher. In fact, the price tag of Obama's plan has already grown. Sheils estimated the scheme Obama pitched while campaigning would cost less than $1.2 trillion.
But don't worry. Everyone will be getting free health care, just as they do in Great Britain, home to a National Health Services hospital in Stafford where thirsty patients drink from flower vases, according to London's Daily Mail, and others are "left in soiled linen on filthy wards."
Stafford, unfortunately, isn't the only British government hospital that's not up to Third World standards. There is documented evi dence of poor care and filthy conditions at other NHS facilities.
In a day when Washington cavalierly throws down trillions from the roof of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing building, the $1.5 trillion tag is not shocking. It should be. Just 15 years ago, $1.5 trillion would have funded the entire federal budget.
For that amount of money, health care should be gold-plated, with no waiting times and instant access to the best drugs and equipment. When the government runs it, though, the care will be rotten, rationed and so free that it will impoverish the country. |
