forgottenliberty.com

The White House has released President Obama’s health care plan.  Supposedly, it’s supposed to lower costs and increase coverage.  I’ve read most of what is posted on the White House website, but I don’t see anything new.  It seems like it’s the Senate bill with a few measures from the House bill mixed in.  The opening paragraph of Obama’s plan claims that Republican suggestions have been included, but I have yet to see the 2 main pillars of the Republican take on health care — tort reform and buying insurance across state lines.  Obama’s plan consists of new government regulations, mandates on buying insurance, new taxes on “evil rich” people and tax credits for everyone else.  It can basically be summed in two points, more government intrusion into our lives and redistribution of wealth.  How will this be beneficial to our country and our health care system?   From what I’ve read, this plan does nothing to actually reduce the cost of health care, and provides government handouts to help some people pay for health care.  This would naturally increase the deficit, but will supposedly be paid for by taxes on businesses and the rich.  The following is a summary of the section of the plan that is supposed to make health care more affordable. 

As the Obama administration watched their poll numbers plummet in regard to health care reform (and the public option in particular), they began trying to reshape what the debate was about.  Instead of continuing the positive tone of making sure everyone is covered and lowering costs, they went negative, attacking and vilifying the insurance companies.  They even stopped using the phrase “health care reform” and started using “health insurance reform”.  I suppose they thought they could reshape the debate from making health care affordable to, “Let’s get the evil money grubbing insurance companies!”  The President’s recent weekly address was an outright attack on the insurance companies.

At about the 4 minute mark, President Obama begins to talk about the profits of the insurance companies.  He said, “The fact is, the insurance industry is making this last ditch effort to stop reform, even as costs continue to rise and our health care dollars continue to be poured into their profits, bonuses and administrative costs.”

President Obama isn’t the only one to attack the insurance companies over their profits.  Nancy Pelosi recently said, “”I’m very pleased that (Democratic leaders) will be talking, too, about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years.”

Are the insurance companies really making obscene profits that are causing our premiums to rise?  According to an article from the AP the answer is no, unless you think that farm and construction machinery, Tupperware, the railroads, Hershey sweets, Molson Coors Brewing, Yum food brands and Yahoo? are all gouging us to increase their profits.  All of these companies have a higher profit margin than health insurance companies.

According to the AP,