Don’t be fooled — no one in D.C. is trying to solve health-care costs

OPINION:

Former President Reagan used to elicit a laugh every time he would mock the line “We’re from the government and we’re here to help.” The laughs came because, well intentioned or not, the federal government typically causes more problems than it fixes. But many would question the intent in the first place. Is the government really trying to solve a problem or simply trying to placate the public until the next popularity poll comes out?

This week the Senate is attempting to tackle the issue of health care. During the Obama administration Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA). If you look it up online or ask ChatGPT what the ACA is, it will tell you it was “a landmark U.S. healthcare reform law signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 to expand health insurance coverage and make it more affordable.”  

Good intention. Poor result.

At the time the ACA legislation was signed, health insurance for my wife, son and myself cost approximately $436 monthly. Today health insurance for the same three people costs over $2100 monthly. That is almost a 400% increase. So much for affordability. We have markedly fewer options to choose from, both in terms of companies and the number of plans. So much for expanding health coverage.

At the time the ACA was passed, America was told it would make prices more affordable. We were told the program would pay for itself. We were told “if you liked your doctor, you could keep your doctor.” All these promises turned out to be dubious at best.

Today’s jacked-up insurance prices are allegedly offset by tax credits given to people in various income categories. Let me clarify that. The insurance companies still get paid the full amount, but for people of a certain income, some or all of their bill is paid by taxpayers and/or by other insurance customers. The only winner in all of this? The insurance companies.

During the COVID pandemic, the Biden administration, expressing concern that some were having trouble making money and paying their bills, dramatically expanded who would get credits against their health insurance bills. Once again, these so-called breaks were actually paid for by taxpayers and by other insurance customers. There is no health-insurance fairy.

At the time they passed the expanded program, Democrats promised it was just temporary. The program would expire in 2025, because by then, surely COVID would be behind us. They were correct about COVID.

Now, however, those same Democrats insist that the expanded program must be made permanent. Taxpayers should foot the bill for even more people, forever. The left felt so strongly about it that they closed down the government for more than 40 days trying to force Republicans to go along with their taxpayer-funded handout.

During the shutdown, the GOP stood strong. Sadly, just a couple of months later, the Republicans are capitulating. There are now competing Democratic and Republican plans for how to handle health care. While that may sound encouraging on the surface, reality is that both partiers are simply looking at who will pay the bills and at who is being paid. No plan even bats an eyelash in the direction of limiting health care costs, at prohibiting doctors from owning the testing centers to which they refer patients, or at any other cost-containment measures. If the problem is affordability, wouldn’t that be the logical approach?

It reminds me of former President Biden’s idea of “forgiving” student loans. It didn’t forgive anything. It simply forced someone else to pay the bill. Doctors and lawyers who had agreed to pay back their student loans, but decided they didn’t want to do so, suddenly were free and clear at the expense of policemen and teachers through their tax bills. Most importantly, Mr. Biden didn’t change one thing about the way new student loans continue to be administered. Were limits on student loan interest rates considered? No. Were other changes for the next generation of students considered? No. Just get taxpayers to suck it up and pay off the loans of the deadbeats.

Likewise, while the headlines will tell us all this week how the two political parties have competing plans to “solve” health care, the truth is, neither does. No one is looking at how to get a grip on the spiraling costs. No one is looking at correcting legal abuses of the system. Congress largely ignores the actual price of insurance and instead simply focuses on who is going to pay the ever-bigger tab.

When Obamacare was becoming reality, I used to worry aloud that the same government that ran the U.S. Postal Service so incredibly inefficiently now wanted to run your health care. It turns out I underestimated how bad they could be. Even the price of a postal stamp hasn’t increased 400% in 15 years.