The Wolf At The Door

And Endless Red Ink

To the Editor:

Where are the truth seekers? Certainly not in government or the media. As the debate about ObamaCare rages on, I think about my five children (ages 10 and under) and the massive fiscal damage Obama and Congress are doing to this country. It worries me that they are saddling my children and future generations with unsustainable government entitlements and bureaucracies financed by more government debt, significantly higher taxes, and antigrowth policies. 

The health care system, which represents approximately 17 percent of the economy, works well for most Americans. However, while change is necessary, the idea of change that Obama is peddling is the kind of change that we cannot believe in.

Specifically, very little in the Senate or House health care bills will bring down costs, increase quality, and enhance access. Common sense says that you cannot significantly increase coverage to millions of Americans and expect to lower the cost or growth rate of health care. How do you rationally explain this paradox?

Has the government ever succeeded in delivering a better product, or allocating capital more effectively, than the private sector and free market? Additionally, are we to believe that Washington bureaucrats are somehow more virtuous and nobler than the private sector economic self interests that guide capitalism and the free market, and thus are better able to deliver more affordable, efficient, and quality healthcare? 

Unfortunately, this legislation only serves to continue to explode the deficit and tax burdens for us and future generations. Government mandates and price fixing will not fix health care (see Medicare and Medicaid). There are numerous common sense reforms, all based on free market principles that can be adopted to lower the cost and increase the supply, quality, affordability, and access to health care, including tort reform, more competition, less state mandates, customizable insurance policies (deductibles, limits, etc), more price transparency in the delivery of health care, greater supply of doctors and health care professionals, and reducing Medicare/Medicaid waste and fraud...just to name a few.

The forecast for health care spending is predicted to rise significantly, consuming a larger share of government and consumer spending — leaving little room for other government spending priorities. If the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are $107 trillion (which grew six percent from last year!), as the government estimates, the future solvency of the US may be at risk.

Finally, as the Wall Street Journal recently commented: “We have now reached the stage of the American health care debate when all that matters is getting a bill passed, so all news is good news, more subsidies mean lower deficits, and more expensive insurance is really cheaper insurance.” The wolf at the door is a liberal agenda that continues to spend recklessly and promise everything to everyone, without addressing the fundamental truths to reforming health care, runaway deficit spending, and the coming fiscal challenge of a tidal wave of retiring baby boomers, which lead to an endless sea of red ink.

Joseph Eppers

31 Russett Road, Sandy Hook                               December 30, 2009