HealthScare

With all of the negative economic news, most of the media has seemingly forgotten about the specter of Obamacare and is unwilling to discuss its negative impact on the economy, federal spending, and the debt. In general, the media prefers to recycle the administration’s spin, that the new health care law will “reduce” overall health care costs and improve healthcare. This spin occurs despite a growing body of nonpartisan evidence that indicates otherwise.

The Boston Herald comments:

Even as yet another federal court ponders the constitutionality of Obamacare, the bad news about its impact just keeps on coming.

This week a report by the respected McKinsey & Co. found that at least 30 percent of employers are likely to stop offering their workers health insurance as a routine benefit once the federal law kicks in.

As many as half of those 1,300 companies surveyed said they would “definitely” or “probably” drop such coverage even with a government imposed penalty of as much as $2,000 per worker for companies with more than 50 employees.

We have already seen the first of wave of Obamacare’s unintended consequences with the government granting more than 1,372 waivers to companies, unions and insurers who wanted to continue to offer low cost plans that didn’t necessarily meet the new and rather expansive and expensive Obamacare guidelines.

For a moment, let’s discount the health care waivers that have, by and large, been granted to politically correct constituencies or employers who might otherwise drop insurance altogether right now. If 1,372 companies and unions are asking to be waived, there’s something in the new law that tells them that (1) it will cost them money and/or (2) that it will not improve care. Even more concerning is McKinsey’s projection that 30 percent of all employers will drop health coverage altogether.

Of course, some people believe that forcing companies to drop coverage was the covert objective of Obamacare all along. Once companies bail, universal health care would follow as the crisis deepens. That may be a bit extreme, but it does make you wonder.

After all, the federal government does such a good job controlling costs in Medicare—an entitlement that cost hundreds of times more than original projections when it was instituted in the 1960s and will be in default in less than 14 years. All we need to do, according to Democratic proponents who are currently using “healthscare” tactics to frighten seniors, is eliminate fraud and abuse and of course, tax the rich. Yeah, that’ll work.