Now it is reported that Pelosi will send to the floor a bill with a public option that calls for negotiated rates rather than using Medicare rates for payment to health care providers. Interesting start, but one can only imagine what will happen a few years after enactment when costs are still rising…does Medicare ring a bell?
However, you don’t even have to wait that long, to keep under the target cost projection the bill will also expand Medicaid, this is what The Hill says about that:
“The negotiated rates plan is estimated to cost about $85 billion more than the Medicare-based reimbursements. To cut the number of uninsured without surpassing the $900 billion limit set by Obama, the bill will expand eligibility for the Medicaid health care program for the poor. The bill will also include an income surtax on the wealthy to pay much of the cost of the plan.”
I think they used to call that bait and switch. They draw you in with a too good to believe sale and then sell you something else. So, now the $85 billion is off the books for federal health care reform, but shifted to the states through expanded Medicaid. Now you see it now you don’t. And by the way, Medicaid costs money too.
As Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.
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