I have two more fallacies for you regarding the push for socialized medicine. First, when politicians speak of “controlling costs” they are not talking about the cost of health insurance. These are the costs that concern those who purchase health care: Individuals and companies. Politicians are talking about the cost of medical care for the government. They intend to drive down government costs by any means necessary, while at the same time covering more people. The government plans to expand coverage from seniors to essentially the entire population — in the process, ending what’s left of private health insurance altogether. At the same time, they intend to make medical care cost less. How do you think they will do this? There are only two possible ways. One, drastically reduce the quality and frequency of medical care. Second, drastically reduce the amount doctors and surgeons are paid, pushing all or most of them to become, in effect, government employees. This is what the push for “health care reform” amounts to, and it’s one reason it’s so unpopular. The bad news is that the Congress intends to push it through anyway, and probably has the votes to do it.
The other fallacy involves pre-existing conditions. Under whatever bill passes, it will become illegal for insurance companies to factor in pre-existing conditions when insuring someone. Who could be against this? What this policy actually supports is personal irresponsibility. It encourages people not to seek coverage until they’re sick, since they’re guaranteed to get the coverage anyway. This imposes the cost of insuring them on those who were healthy, and paying premiums all along. How fair is that? Moreover, it drives up the cost of health insurance much more than it already is. If you think health insurance is expensive now, wait until determinations based on pre-existing conditions are outlawed. To politicians this does not matter since they assume everyone will be covered under Medicare for all, anyway. This, in fact, is their goal: To drive the marketplace out of the market. But the expense has to be felt somewhere. You better believe it will be felt by doctors and patients — the two groups about to become wards, if not outright slaves, of the government.