No Runny Eggs

President Obama and Kathleen Sebelius were out touting a new study on the benefits of placebocare this weekend.  The study purports to show that industries with higher health care costs grow at a slower rate than those with lower health care costs. In an effort to somehow draw an “OMG” from the reader, the Center for American Progress cites:

Over the period 1987 to 2005, for example, the workforce in the amusement
and recreation industry—where about 29 percent of workers have insurance through
their jobs—grew by about 2.1 percent. In contrast, in the hotel industry—where 54 percent
of workers have employer-provided insurance—the workforce grew about 1 percent.
And in the paper industry—where about 85 percent of workers have insurance—the
workforce shrank by 1.9 percent.

While this is not the point of this post, I can’t pass by without saying “no shit Sherlock!”  The study claims to normalize the results for a whole host of factors but isn’t this one of those times where all the economic mumbo jumbo isn’t really necessary?  Isn’t this handled with a good ol’ fashioned smell test?

Is it really so hard to understand that between 1985 and 2005, the amount of discretionary income increased significantly thus increasing money spent for “entertainment” and “hospitality?”  Is it also so hard to figure out that those two industries are fairly labor intensive and that there doesn’t appear to be any immediate automation solutions for the ride operators at Disneyworld or housemaids at your favorite Motel 6.  On the other hand, automation in nearly every manufacturing process has been replacing the need for DNA based humans at a rate multiple times faster than evolution can generate a human who never tires or needs sustenance.  Is it really so hard to figure this stuff out?

Anyway, back to the point of the post.

Obama and Sebelius are touting that the Senate version of placebocare will dramatically slow the rise in costs for healthcare.  They further claim that while lowering costs, it will dramatically increase “benefits” for all us schlubs.  Their specific list of benefits are:

_People with illnesses or medical conditions will be able to buy affordable health insurance.

_Children with such conditions will no longer be denied coverage.

_Small-business owners who can’t afford to cover their employees will get tax credits to help them do so.

_Insurance companies will be required to offer free preventive care to their customers and will be prohibited from dropping coverage when someone becomes ill.

“In short, once I sign health insurance reform into law, doctors and patients will have more control over their health care decisions and insurance company bureaucrats will have less,” Obama said.

I’m not the PHD that the earlier study researchers are but I have a couple of questions:

1. How are you going to slow the growth of “costs” when you will need to add 100s, 1,000s, probably 10,000s of new federal employees to manage the monstrosity that will be placebocare?
2. How are you going to slow the gowth of “costs” when you will be providing below cost health care for:  People with illnesses or medical conditions who are not currently able to buy affordable health insurance and Children with such conditions who will no longer be denied coverage, Small-business owners who can’t afford to cover their employees tax and finally Insurance companies will be required to offer free preventive care to their customers and will be prohibited from dropping coverage when someone becomes ill?

Folks, while there has been plenty of happy talk about “hope and change” for reducing the cost structure of health care, I have not yet seen even one concrete example of where placebocare will enable that to happen.  I have seen numerous examples, as the ones I just listed, where placebocare will force insurance companies to take on dramatic increases in costs.  Somehow, the folks in Washington believe that they can force companies to accept new costs and prevent them from passing those costs on to their customers.

There has been considerable discussion about whether Barack Obama’s policies are leading us towards Socialism.  Big government, all controlling, massive public programs all sound like the economies we see in Europe.  In fact, I believe Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid would like us to look like Europe.  However, we’re not headed towards Europe of the 21st century, they are past that.  we’re headed directly towards Europe, specifically, Italy of the first half of the 20th century.  If you take a look at what is happening to industry after industry under the Obama administration, you will find something that looks surprisingly like Mussolini’s approach in Italy.  Folks, with what has happened to banking, car production, healthcare and soon energy under the EPA’s threats, we have zoomed right past Socialism and are implementing on a full scale the economics of Fascism.