COLUMN: On the brink of the health care reform

While it is hard to believe that the passage of a nearly one trillion dollar health care package will somehow rescue the country from the brink of insolvency, President Obama assures us that is the case.

Last week, the President told ABC News that the federal government would go bankrupt if the health care bill failed. He elaborated by saying that Medicare and Medicaid are on an “unsustainable” path.

You know, just like Social Security.

The President drew a step closer to making his dreams of “liberty, justice and health care for all” a reality with the passage of the 2,074 page Senate bill.

In his desperation to get health care legislation – any health care legislation – passed before Christmas, the President has virtually assured that the job will be done poorly, if at all.

After promising to cover the millions of uninsured Americans with his economy-saving plan, proponents now admit that even with the legislation, 18 - 24 million Americans will remain uninsured.

Those who are insured will be paying higher premiums and those without insurance who are eligible for coverage could be forced to pay up to ten percent of their annual income in premiums before government subsidies kick in. If they fail to purchase coverage, they will be fined.

Even the Health and Human Services Department said this legislation will increase health care spending faster than if the government does nothing at all. Through brilliant deductive reasoning, they reached the conclusion that higher taxes on medical device manufacturers, taxes on “Cadillac” insurance plans, taxes on drugs and a mandate to insure everyone would lead to higher costs being passed on to the consumer. And that is just for starters.

Other new taxes have been proposed to help finance the legislation.

For example, the Senate initially proposed a “Botax,” a tax on elective cosmetic procedures. I guess too many Senators saw personal implications in that measure, so they struck it and replaced it with a “tan tax” - a 10 percent tax on tanning bed visits. Seriously. Their justification? Tanning bed visits present a potential risk of skin cancer. What’s next? A payroll tax calculated on the amount of time a worker spends outdoors to compensate for cancer risks caused by increased sun exposure?

When the House and Senate bills are reconciled, there may be even more taxes, fines and fees to finance this imperative need for health care reform.

The President and his Congressional lackeys have ensured that at the end of this prolonged debate, we will be left with higher medical costs, higher insurance premiums, more taxes, greater burdens on state budgets and we will still have millions of Americans without insurance.

What a great accomplishment.

Kristi Reed is a reporter for the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at kreed@barrowjournal.com.