Obamacare? We Should Have Seen You Coming

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by Tim Reeves

Many readers of this site may find what happened in late March to be unbelievable.  They may wonder how the paradigm was set that the Federal Government has no bounds to its authority whatsoever. 

This is the product of naiveté, as conservatives turned a blind eye to President Bush’s Medicare Part D expansion, the U.S. Patriot Act, and budget-busting deficits as far back as the eye can see. 

Indeed, republican presidents seem to use the somewhat stronger affinity of their party towards a smaller government as a kind of cover to allow them to expand the government beyond the bounds it had prior to their presidency.

Not that the other statists are any better, but when they expand the government they say ‘I am going to expand government so that more people are dependent upon it’ – such as the “Obamacare” bill.  In 4 years (the delay was primarily so the Congressional Budget Office score would come in better) people will start expecting the government to take care of their every medical need. 

Any person at that point who tries to do any reform or cost cutting will be viewed as a tyrant, intent on denying the most needy among us our (entitled) health care.  At that point it will be too late to save the American republic.

When the full affects of Obamacare are in play, health insurance companies will become just a Government-sponsored entity. They will have the responsibility to provide care for any applicants- without the possibility of denying coverage. At this point, the risk pool will expand exponentially (as they will be required to provide for any request, from any citizen, for any procedure). 

In tandem with this expansion of requirements for benefits, they will be denied any rate increase to cover the increased risk. There are only two possibilities:

1.  The “private” insurers will go bankrupt, leaving all of their insure-ees as medical wards of the state.  These people will have to join a Government Plan (once all the private insurers are bankrupt) as it will be clear there is no money to be made in the health insurance market. So, no new companies will be started to take the place of the old ones.

2.  The “private” insurers will have to go begging to the Government to allow them to raise rates.  This will cause all citizens of the country to pay more for health insurance than they previously did, and would also be on top of the already higher taxes we will be paying to provide care for the poor.  The healthy young who previously had declined coverage, or had a high deductible plan, will pay the most for this- as they will now have to have an “approved” plan.

The budgetary effects of this expansion hardly need to be mentioned.  The U.S Government will, in short order, end up being the provider of all medical benefits.  Initially there will be no restraint in the spending, whatsoever.  This will cause demand for medical services (which will be perceived as free) to skyrocket. 

The law of supply and demand still applies, so with no increase in the supply of doctors or medicine (and most likely a decrease) the price will increase proportionately to the increase in supply.  Since the insurance companies will all be bankrupt in short order, the Federal budget will ultimately pay for all of this expansion.

This will bring us to rationing. With a limited supply of doctors/medicine, the Federal Govt. will have to decide which medical proceedures are worth doing and which should be (indefinitely) delayed.  The rational basis that these decisions will have to be made on is:  The person with a higher likelyhood of actually contributing to the tax base will have first crack at service, along with the political elite.  This rationing will also result in a near halt to all medical “breakthrough treatments,” as these will be viewed by Bio-tech companies as unprofitable to pursue.

This is all due to the process of “nationalization” of our politics that has been going on since the Civil War.  Think about it, if this was just on a state-by-state basis…for example, just in Oregon or Massachusetts, these would not be the same kind of problem (and as a side note- they would be constitutional, whether good policy or not) because the other states would be able to pick up the slack and allow citizens an escape hatch. 

If our Senators were still appointed by the statehouses (as originally intended) they would have stopped Obamacare (as it is the Mother of all unfunded mandates). If we were still on the Gold standard, no one in Washington would dare propose such a plan- as there would be no magical Federal Reserve Bank to get an unlimited source of funds for any fantasy that politicians dream up.  If states were still willing to nullify unconstitutional laws, D.C. would be less bold in proposing laws which are clearly outside the enumerated powers possessed by the Federal Government.  I won’t even address the Supreme Court, as they are not the only arbiters of what is constitutional.

Republicans seem to want to repeal this law and replace it (probably with something less socialistic).  This is unlikely- and even if it happens, it would be only a delay of the inevitable.  The statists will be in power again, and when they are, this same fight will happen all over again.  No national redress is truly available. 

The only way forward is to nullify through the statehouses. If we are to pull this one out, we will have to nullify this law. There is no other option.

Remember in 1994 when “Hillarycare” was defeated?  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. How about when Truman proposed it?  Government structured as a national democracy (as it is) always tends towards socialism. 

Indeed if the bill had been defeated in D.C. this time, it would only be a matter of time before it was attempted again.  This is because citizens will always vote for politicians who promise the expensive entitlements that will lead to debt slavery for their children. 

We need to reinvigorate the State Governments to nullify unconstitutional acts by Congress, and we need to do it now before the outrage felt in the electorate fades into comfort/complacency.  Only in this way can we permanently put the Government on solid footing.

The Tenth Amendment Center has produced a model nullification law which I have linked here: http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/legislation/federal-health-care-nullification-act/
Everyone who reads this post needs to call their state Representatives/Senators/Governors and demand that they introduce this bill in the next session of legislature.  If this passes- along with other states, your state can be part of the solution.

Tim Reeves is the State Chapter Coordinator for the Oregon Tenth Amendment Center.

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