Again, Attack The Messenger!

Yesterday, a bomb was literally dropped on the Baucus Health Care Reform bill by the health insurance industry.

Price Waterhouse Coopers, an accounting/auditing firm, was commissioned by that industry to look at the Baucus bill and determine what the impact would be on future private insurance costs. Price Waterhouse determined that the Baucus Bill could result in an increased annual insurance cost of $4,000 for an average family of four by the year 2020 (Click to See Full Story: "Health-reform lemon").

Of course, the Democrats went crazy.

Rather than dispute the numbers themselves, the Democrats went after Price Waterhouse and the insurance industry.

First, they claimed the timing of the Waterhouse report was suspect; being released just prior to the Senate Finance Committee's vote on the Buacus proposal. Of course, the timing of the Waterhouse report doesn't actually make the findings of the report invalid; but, the Democrats would have you believe that.

Also, they tried to discount the findings by claiming that the insurance companies are intent on discrediting the Baucus bill because they want more profits than that bill would afford them. Again, those greedy insurance companies! However, the devil is in the details of the Price Waterhouse report, and this claim by the Democrats is just another political attempt to sidestep its real findings.

Finally, they claimed that Price Waterhouse doesn't have the credentials to calculate the effects of the Baucus bill because they aren't part of the health care industry. ( As if our Senate is all-knowing about the health care industry!) I am quite sure that Price Waterhouse has conducted audits for numerous health care and health care service companies and is quite qualified to analyze the results of the Baucus bill.

Aside from all this smoke and mirrors by the Democrats, the real fact is that no single Democrat was able to discredit the math that went into the findings of that report. All the Dems did is attack the messengers!

Price Waterhouse is an extremely reputable accounting firm. For them to put their name on a flawed study would be ridiculous because it could jeopardize their reputation as an auditing firm and that fact, alone, could easily undermine their business. Unlike politicians, an auditing firm's business is totally dependent on the truthfulness, the depth, and the accuracy of their reports. In the case of Price Waterhouse, that reputation has allowed them to be a firm who provides accounting services for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies and other well-known, worldwide businesses; both large and small.

So, who would you trust? A Congress that has historically low approval numbers and who is unable to garner any real trust from the American people; or, a trusted accounting firm that operates successfully in 150 countries and has been in business since 1849.

The Price Waterhouse report only confirms what most people in America already know and have said in many, many polls: The health care reforms that are being put forth by the Democrats will be expensive, provide less care, and result in higher taxes for everyone. This latest attack on Price Waterhouse is another effort by the Democrats to hide that imminent reality.

If Money is Fungible, So are Taxes!

Yesterday, Democrat Max Baucus rolled out his plan for health care reform. Looking much like a man with a really bad body odor problem, he stood by his lonesome on a stage to announce his plan. Nary a Democrat or Republican was there to stand by his side.

For those who don't know who Baucus is, he is a Senator from Wyoming and the supposed leader of a group of 3 Republicans and 3 Democrats who have been trying to draft a bipartisan bill on health care reform.

The reason that Baucus found out that one "was the loneliest number" on that stage is because neither Democrats or Republicans are united with him on it.

The real stupidity in the Baucus proposal is how it's paid for. The Democrats don't like it because it gets a majority of its revenue by taxing health insurance companies for providing "Cadillac" health care plans -- plans like those that the union workers get. The Republicans are against it because it fails the tort reform test and because it is another $836 billion boondoggle tax scheme.

Baucus seems to think that his "paying for it" plan is a winner because he would hit the insurance companies with a 38% tax for providing certain first-class health insurance plans. Therefore, it would meet Obama's goal of not increasing the Federal deficit. His logic is that America won't balk at his taxing scheme because Americans already hate insurance companies. But, the stupidity of this Senate Finance member is that money doesn't come out of thin air. In order to pay the 38% tax on those Cadillac insurance plans, the insurance companies will have to pass that cost on to the consumer. So, in a round about way, we will all pay the price. It just won't be, technically, a hike in our taxes. It will just be higher prices that are forced by taxes. That's the fungibility of taxes when they are imposed on a supplier of any product or service.

In addition, Baucus would charge doctors and drug companies for a "hit list" of what somebody in government will ultimately determine as being luxury drugs and/or procedures. This form of punishment by taxation may, in fact, put some life saving drugs and techniques out of the reach of many Americans. The insanity of such a tactic is that most all common place medical procedures of today started out as very expensive procedures. Those would include things like stents and bypass surgery for heart patients. Kidney transplants and a variety of other procedures. For drugs, its the same. They start out as expensive "patented" medications and they ultimately wind up as cheap generics. Now, Baucus would make new procedures and new drugs even more expensive. This would either slow or completely stifle any new innovation.

Lastly on the "paying for it" bandwagon: If you don't have insurance, you will pay; and, pay big. A typical American family could get hit with as much as a $3800 annual fine for not having medical insurance. Families with kids who are just struggling to survive can't afford this type of "pound of flesh" punishment from our government.

More and more, I really think we're dealing with a complete bunch of idiots. Obama and the Congress keep telling us that the high cost of health care will break America if those costs aren't gotten under control. So, to control costs, they have insanely decided to raise the costs of health care by at least a trillion dollars. Then, to make sure health care doesn't get any better and maybe less expensive, they would stifle innovation with other taxes. Lastly, they refuse to control the awards for medical malpractice lawsuits -- awards that have been doubling almost every 7 to 8 years.

That's a great future for health care in America!