Swordsmyth
07-19-2017, 02:22 PM
If actually improving the lives of taxpayers and constituents were the goal, the GOP could have focused less on specifically repudiating the Obama agenda, and instead looking for ways to undo decades of government meddling in healthcare — which has produced the expensive, inflexible, and monopolistic healthcare system we have today.
Instead, the focus has been only on Obamacare itself — the repeal of which would only return us to the bad old days of 2013 when the healthcare sector was already long over-regulated, distorted, subsidized, and made far more expensive than would be the case in a functioning marketplace.
Even worse, the rhetoric surrounding the Obamacare-repeal effort has tended to send the message that things were more or less fine before Obamacare was passed, and this once it was repealed, things would improve. In truth, healthcare was already headed toward disastrous price increases and problems of falling quality even before Obomacare was passed. Given how government has come to dominate the industry, this should surprise no one.
Decades of Government Control and Subsidy The pre-Obamacare world was one in which the United States spent more government money on healthcare (https://mises.org/blog/bernie-sanders-says-we-should-be-spending-less-health-care) than almost any other nation. That's government spending, not total spending overall.
https://mises.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/health2%20%281%29.jpg?itok=nQ37U__z
This data is from the world Health Organizations 2014 report on healthcare spending. The data pre-dates the implementation of Obamacare. Specifically, per capita government spending in the US comes in at $4,047 behind Norway ($5,198), Luxembourg (5,061), and the Netherlands ($4,070), and is also quite comparable to Denmark ($3,801).
Indeed, by the time Obamacare was passed, the US had already been piling on regulations and subsidies in the healthcare sector for more than 70 years.
More at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-19/fix-healthcare-we-need-repeal-lot-more-obamacare
Instead, the focus has been only on Obamacare itself — the repeal of which would only return us to the bad old days of 2013 when the healthcare sector was already long over-regulated, distorted, subsidized, and made far more expensive than would be the case in a functioning marketplace.
Even worse, the rhetoric surrounding the Obamacare-repeal effort has tended to send the message that things were more or less fine before Obamacare was passed, and this once it was repealed, things would improve. In truth, healthcare was already headed toward disastrous price increases and problems of falling quality even before Obomacare was passed. Given how government has come to dominate the industry, this should surprise no one.
Decades of Government Control and Subsidy The pre-Obamacare world was one in which the United States spent more government money on healthcare (https://mises.org/blog/bernie-sanders-says-we-should-be-spending-less-health-care) than almost any other nation. That's government spending, not total spending overall.
https://mises.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/health2%20%281%29.jpg?itok=nQ37U__z
This data is from the world Health Organizations 2014 report on healthcare spending. The data pre-dates the implementation of Obamacare. Specifically, per capita government spending in the US comes in at $4,047 behind Norway ($5,198), Luxembourg (5,061), and the Netherlands ($4,070), and is also quite comparable to Denmark ($3,801).
Indeed, by the time Obamacare was passed, the US had already been piling on regulations and subsidies in the healthcare sector for more than 70 years.
More at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-19/fix-healthcare-we-need-repeal-lot-more-obamacare