Obamacare isn’t free

A quote whose origin is undetermined is making the rounds of the Internet:

“Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured, but not everyone must prove they are a citizen.”

Accompanying this is another unattributed quote:

“Many of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens.”

Recall that Obamacare was supposed to save us all money by insuring those who were uninsured and supposedly driving up insurance costs by showing up at emergency rooms.

Contrary to this, a peer-reviewed study published in Health Affairs in 2008 stated, “Private insurance premiums are at most 1.7 percent higher because of shifting the costs of the uninsured to private insurance.”

That was an interesting tidbit from a June 29 Wall Street Journal column by John F. Cogan, Daniel P. Kessler  and R. Glenn Hubbard. Hubbard is dean of the Columbia Business School and Cogan and Kessler are Stanford profs and Hoover Institution fellows.

The trio pointed out that among the contributory factors in the cost of private insurance are state regulations. Many states have price controls and a host of mandates on what insurers must cover. That accounts for driving insurance higher by as much as 15 percent, “and increased the number of uninsured by as much as 10 million.”

They added, “Unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act enshrines many of these flawed policies in federal law.”

Free contraceptives are just the tip of the iceberg of regulations being promulgated by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Another study earlier this year called “The Fiscal Consequences of the Affordable Care Act” by Charles Blahous, published by the Mercatus Center, said Obamacare would add $340 billion to the federal deficits over the next 10 years and trillions over the longer term.

HHS is already handing out billions, including $728 million for new clinics, spending $7.25 billion to finance nonprofit insurance companies to be run by consumers with no experience in insurance companies. HHS is predicting a loan default rate of 35 to 40 percent.

Obamacare is loaded with costs that will make the $16 trillion national debt look like chump change. As former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to pass it to see what’s in it.” And then HHS promulgates regulations that we have to wait for to find out what the government is going to do to us.

It’s a dog chasing its tail with higher taxes on one end and higher costs on the other.

Economic historian John Steele Gordon said it best when he asked “Will health care — one sixth of the American economy — be taken over by the folks who run the post office?”