Obamacare:The Cure Worse Than the Disease

We should all celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the majority of the components of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)  in general, and the individual mandate, in particular, as Constitutional. After all, millions more American Citizens will have access to health care insurance. We will reduce the number of "free riders" who don't contribute to health care pools and reduce that overwhelming flood of people who misuse our emergency rooms as primary care. As a result, people will be healthier and more productive. It is a "win-win" situation. 


At least in the short run.


The long run, however, portends a much darker scenario, one in which unforeseen dynamics will cause the entire system to eventually collapse, leaving more Americans vulnerable than ever. Here is glimpse into the darkness to come:

1. Corruption Will Reign--Because money will be appropriated to finance the purchase of health care insurance, Congress will have access to another slush fund. They will undoubtedly use this money to feather their nest, and roll more than just a few logs. Just take a look at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if you want to know what our government does with taxpayer money aimed at serving helping the "disadvantaged" and "underserved." 
2. Debt will Rise---Considering the CBO has already re-projected AHCA (A.K.A. Obamacare) to cost double their first estimation, you can bet it is going to run a gigantic tab at taxpayers expense. This has been the truth with almost every government program, including medicare and medicaid. With the new qualifications regarding poverty, an untold number of Americans will end up in Medicaid, pushing an already stressed system into premature insolvency. And as the baby boomers retire in droves, they will put downward pressure on society not only through Social Security, but also medicare and medicaid. Unlike previous generations in which the labor force outnumbered retirees by a 12:1 ratio (and therefore able to adequately finance their retirement and associated benefits),  we now find ourselves in a situation in which there are only three people for every retiree. This intergenerational wealth transfer will become so burdensome our government will respond by monetizing the debt (read "print" money), inflation will run rampant (it is already in the cards), and economic stagnation will set in as the value of the dollar erodes to the point that wage increases will never keep up, forcing more and more Americans into poverty. At this point the only option left is to offer, you got it, government assistance, complements of the seemingly bottomless well of tax-payer subsidies. And around and around we go, where we stop...well we know where we stop. Europe is already the model, with Greece and Spain as our poster boys. 
3. Docs will Take A Holiday--As doctors get ensnared in the legal and bureaucratic morass of centrally planned health care, they will drop out of the insurance game and conduct a pay-as-you-go approach, or opt for working for hospitals. Doctors cite the payment system of Medicare as primary reason for abandoning this sinking ship. Ironically, Medicare was gutted to the tune of a half a trillion dollars to pay for Obamacare. How can this make any sense unless you have swallowed one of the two pills that Alice was offered in Wonderland? Obamacare will accelerate this trend, leaving fewer doctors to treat an ever-increasing number of patients. This will mean, ultimately, that only the wealthy will be able to afford quality, individualized care, thereby widening the gap even further between the haves and the have nots. 
4. Care will be Rationed--Critics of our current system (which I must point out is heavily controlled by government mandates and monies) point out that we already ration care via health care insurance companies. While this is a fair and valid criticism, the words of Bachman, Turner and Overdrive, "BBBaby , you ain't see nothin' yet," now have a prophetic ring. As cost overruns, inefficiencies, and corruption create a mountain of debt, the bureaucratic  resposne will be to ration care. So now instead of being denied by some cold, faceless perfunctory from a health care insurance company, we will be denied by some cold, faceless perfunctory from D.C. 
5. The Tax Man Cometh--In order to pay for the costs inflated by corruption and ineptitude and resulting burgeoning debt, taxes will have to be raised significantly. This will hit  middle-class families like a load of bricks. No my liberal friends, there will not be enough from the 1% to pay for this disaster, even if you doubled their taxes. This will ultimately send the American economy into another nosedive, and many people from middle-class families will find themselves jobless and dependent upon unemployment insurance, food stamps, and whatever measly scraps and soupcon the federal government might toss to them out of pity. And the welfare state will proceed as planned. 

These dynamics will create collective fiscal, economic and political crisies that will test the cohesion of our society and our ability to maintain social order. Much like Greece, citizens will take to the streets, precipitating the need for a police-state style intervention. The handwriting is on the wall; all the warning signs are there that this is an untenable system, an unsustainable approach. And when all the dust has settled, those of us who knew better and tried to sound the alarm will be left scratching our heads, and wondering how how the American public, or at least half of it, couldn't, or wouldn't, see the truth.