With expensive medical care bills deservedly in trouble in Congress, President Barack Obama has put forth his new plan — which also deserves to be rejected.
The president proposes a trillion-dollar “compromise” to let government deny or roll back insurance premium increases that he believes are too much. Nobody likes high insurance premiums. But who is going to pay the high cost of medical services?
Mr. Obama also wants to cover 31 million more people, who do not have health insurance. Who would pay for that?
We already are running annual budget deficits of more than a trillion dollars. Do the American people want to add a trillion dollars in taxes, or an unfunded trillion dollars to the national debt, which is headed for $14.3 trillion?
Mr. Obama suggested his plan would be “paid for” by tax increases, fees on health care industries and cuts in Medicare. But wouldn’t all of those costs be imposed upon the people?
Probably the only “good” thing in Mr. Obama’s plan is a “bad” thing he chose not to include — a government-run, red-ink insurance plan. But Mr. Obama’s plan seeks to give the federal government power to regulate the health insurance industry as though it were a “public utility.”
The fact is that medical care is expensive, and somebody has to pay. The Obama plan calls for more spending and more debt.