$1 Trillion And Counting

Gary Bauer-American Values

The costs of ObamaCare just keep going up and up and up. Every week it seems we get more news that Obama’s socialized medicine scheme is going to cost a lot more than we were told. Anyone with an ounce of common sense knew that. Government does few things more efficiently or at less expense than the private sector.

The latest report from the Congressional Budget Office finds that ObamaCare may cost an additional $115 billion, pushing the total price tag above $1 trillion. There are tens of billions for administrative costs (more bureaucrats), $34 billion for community health centers and $39 billion for Indian healthcare. (If you want an example of government-run healthcare in action, take a look at the Indian reservations. It’s not pretty.)

But wait there’s more… You may recall several weeks ago that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) issued letters to the CEOs of several companies that had reported negative charges due the new taxes that will be imposed by ObamaCare. Waxman and Stupak had planned on dragging these CEOs before their committee and grilling them on their statements, since ObamaCare was supposed to lower costs after all. That hearing never happened. It was cancelled by Waxman and Stupak.

Here’s why: First, they realized that the CEOs were simply following the law, which requires them to publicly disclose anything that is likely to negatively impact their companies’ bottom line so that shareholders can have access to that information too. Second, they realized their analysis of the negative tax implications for these corporations was correct. Third, and most damning, the companies had done an analysis of the new law and estimated the costs of keeping their existing health insurance coverage or dumping all their employees into ObamaCare and paying the employer fines.

Guess what they found? It was significantly more cost effective for the companies to cancel their health insurance and just pay the fines. Waxman and Stupak didn’t want you to hear about that, and according to press reports, “the hearing was cancelled shortly after staff read the documents.”

For example, AT&T currently pays nearly $2.5 billion to provide health insurance for its employees. If it stopped offering its employees health insurance, it would only have to pay $600 million in fines. Guess what that means for you? Obama’s oft-repeated promises that no one will be forced to give up their current insurance were wrong.

This is exactly what conservatives warned would happen. Liberal politicians created an incentive for companies to drop their insurance benefits and force everyone into Obama’s socialized medicine scheme. According to Politico, “If many employers drop coverage, it would dramatically increase the cost of the overhaul plan,” which is happening anyway and it hasn’t even started yet!

How many of you heard about either of these issues on the evening news? We just had a major national debate about this issue and the tremendous costs involved. The American people were overwhelmingly opposed to ObamaCare. Liberal politicians passed it anyway, and they did so on the absurd claim that another Big Government program was going to “save money.” But when we learn those claims were wrong, the media just ignores it.