Congress Passes Health Care – What’s Next?

Congresses passed the health care bill last night, voting to effectively take over and socialize America’s health care industry and voting against the clear will of the American people articulated in poll after poll.  What can we expect next?

Constitutional Tests.  First, we can expect that the new law just passed by Congress will be signed by the President and will quickly be tested in the courts on Constitutional grounds.  It seems to me to clearly violate Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution.  There is simply no way that the Constitution permits forcing all Americans to join a health care program.  In addition, there is no Constitutional basis for considering this forced health care mandate to be a form of taxation either.  We can also expect the States to challenges the law on a number of grounds as well.  This law simply appears to be unconstitutional.

Roe v. Wade Will Be Overturned.  This will surprise some people.  But, an effect of the health care bill passage is to invalidate Roe v. Wade, the pro-abortion decision.  Why?    Since Roe v. Wade was based in part on a ”Right to Privacy” principle and since the government is not supposed to place an “undue burden” on getting an abortion (a type of medical procedure), Congress is saying now that the government can place an “undue burden” on any other medical procedure or therapy.  If the health care bill is upheld as Constitutional, it seems to me that Roe v. Wade will be overturned easily.

Health Care Insurance Premium Costs Will Skyrocket.  That’s what they did in Massachusetts since they approved universal health care in Massachusetts in 2006.  Indeed, Massachusetts has the highest health insurance premiums in the United States.  In fact, Massachusetts health insurance premiums have gone up 30% per year!

Health Care Rationing and Shortages Are Inevitable – Health Care Quality Will Decline.  There is no free lunch in economics.  You can’t have a socialized health care system run by the government and expect the benefits of free markets.  With price controls, mandates and regulations, come increased demand on services and decreased supplies.  Innovation will be stifled too.  Incentives diminish.  It’s how economics always works.  If you need proof, just look at the shortages and rationing of health care services in Britain and Canada.

The American Economy Will Take a Big Hit.  Medicare has unfunded liabilities of $37T today.  What will this new government entitlement really cost?  Initial Medicaid cost projections were only about 25% of their actual costs.  The direct cost of the new health care bill will probably be significantly higher (maybe 3x or 4x more) than the current projections.  Plus, there are the indirect costs.  Redirecting so much money from the job-creating private sector to the ineffective government sector means the loss of more jobs.  We might even see a 1% increase in unemployment as socialized medicine is rolled out across America and the negative impacts are felt.  Overall, socialized health care will hurt our economy.

No Need for Socialized Medicine.  If America changes its mind and permits a Free Market in health care with economic freedom for consumers, patients, doctors, insurance companies, drug companies, hospitals and others, most of the current problems we face will be solved.  A Free Market in health care will mean lower health care costs, lower health care insurance premiums, more insurance products to choose from, more innovation in medical procedures, therapies, services and drugs, as well as more choices and more freedom for everyone.

Biggest Mistake in American History?  In truth, creating a government-controlled health care system (in effect, a system of socialized medicine) is probably the single biggest mistake Congress has ever made in American history.  If not overturned for being unconstitutional, Americans will probably live to regret it.  Unfortunately, for some Americans, they might not even live to regret it.  After all, how many people have died in other countries waiting for their socialized health care systems to deliver vitally needed services?