CBO says government health care could create problems

Democratic presidential candidates are rushing to outdo each other with voter bribes, particularly when it comes to medicine. Why if the government just nationalizes health care by imposing some version of socialized medicine, Americans will be unchained from the shackles of evil insurance companies and enjoy the benefits of “free” care on demand.

Reality, however, can be a slap in the face. On Wednesday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office delivered such a blow.

“Shifting such a large amount of expenditures from private to public sources would significantly increase government spending,” the report noted, “and require substantial additional government resources.” In addition, “The transition toward a single-payer system could be complicated, challenging and potentially disruptive” while perhaps leading to longer wait times and fewer choices for patients.

The report didn’t examine the costs of single-payer and acknowledges that many factors depend upon the details of any eventual legislation. While savings in some areas may materialize, the report concludes, they would depend on decisions involving treatment options or payments to providers. In other words, politicians and bureaucrats would be calling the shots and likely control costs by shortchanging doctors and patients.

“Questions about what is covered, and how much the government pays for particular products and services,” writes Peter Suderman at Reason.com, “would, in a government-run, taxpayer-financed system, become political, which is to say politicized.”

What would this mean for health care accessibility? How will doctors react to becoming federal wage serfs? Huge federal subsidies will increase the demand for care. “Whether the supply of providers would be adequate to meet the greater demand would depend on various components of the system, such as provider payment rates,” the report notes. “If the number of providers was not sufficient to meet demand, patients might face increased wait times and reduced access to care.”

Another dirty little detail of many single-payer proposals is that in addition to eliminating private insurance, they would outlaw private fee for service contracts. Patients and doctors would be trapped in the government bureaucracy. Canadians come to the United States to escape their public system. Where would Americans go?

Until the specifics of any Democratic health care takeover materialize, it’s impossible to know just how much damage such an approach would produce. Voters must remember, however, that the implementation of socialized medicine in the United States would be an extremely risky endeavor requiring massive tax hikes and representing the most radical economic policy change in the nation’s history.