Opposing Reform

A study has been released saying that the “health care reform” currently being proposed would raise the cost of health insurance. The study was done by Price Waterhouse and paid for by the health insurance industry, so take it for what it may be worth, but I don’t know why health care reform proponents are surprised. Whether or not Price Waterhouse would cook a report to satisfy the needs of the paying client is not a bad question; before Enron we would have said it was a stupid question, but now…

Still, suppose you are making a product that costs $10 and selling it for $11 and the government comes along and adds a $2 tax on that item. Are you going to begin selling that item at a $1 loss, or are you going to raise the price by the amount of the tax and begin selling it for $13?

But the government proposes to “pay for health care reform” by imposing a tax on health insurance companies on the policies it sells for a price above a certain threshold, and it expects that insurance companies will pay that tax without passing that cost on to its customers. Why would a company do that?

The entire thrust of the “health care reform” debate has been demonizing health insurance companies and increasing the amounts that health insurance companies must pay out, with politicians, including the President, using phrases like “keeping insurance companies honest” and accusing insurance companies of “holding America hostage.” And now proponents are amazed, utterly astonished, that insurance companies at this late hour would begin publicly opposing this reform.

I’m surprised they waited this long.