Cost of the Newly Insured

What is it going to cost to give more Americans health insurance? Those who are running the numbers tell us it isn’t going to be cheap.

Let’s start with the claims being made by members of Congress. Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. He says that he expects to raise $1 trillion for health care reform (over 10 years) by cutting Medicare and Medicaid by $400 billion and by raising taxes by $600 billion.

President Barack Obama and his administration give us a glimpse of how they would cut Medicare costs. First, they will cut $106 billion from the disproportionate share hospital program. The DSH is federal money that reimburses hospitals that treat a “disproportionate” number of uninsured.

Second, the president also wants to cut $110 billion by making “productivity adjustments” to Medicare providers. Essentially that will lower the amount the government pays to doctors and hospitals under the guise of forcing them to be more “efficient.” On my radio program, health expert Dr. Merrill Matthews said that would be like your employer coming to you and saying I am going to cut your salary in order to make you more efficient!

Also, let’s not forget the plan to seize an additional $600 billion from the American taxpayers. I think all of us would like to know who has the pay more in taxes at a time when the economy is already struggling.

But the biggest shock has come from the Congressional Budget Office that estimates that this $1 trillion will only result in a net gain of 16 million uninsured. Dr. Matthews did the math and says this works out to be $62,500 per newly insured American. As he says, “You thought health insurance was expensive before, wait until the president makes it affordable.”

Sixty-thousand dollars for every newly insured American? There has got to be a better way to provide insurance for the uninsured. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.