California Libertarian Alliance

“Far from settling the issue once and for all, the bill will usher even fiercer confrontations—not only on health care but on constitutional matters of governance as well—that will make the current battle look like the political equivalent of a spit-ball fight.”

“The Senate and the House begin reconciling their versions of health care “reform” this week. But everyone—barring die-hard Obama supporters—now believes that the outcome is going to be more botched than Michael Jackson’s nose. There is a growing consensus in both the right and the left that the individual mandate provision, which is almost certain to be part of the final bill, represents a kind of neo-feudalism.”

Shikha Dalma warns of chronic political warfare if Obama’s health care reform passes @ http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/15/beware-the-obamacare-revolutio

“While congressional reform efforts screech and shudder along, let’s take a moment to dream about real health care reform. Imagine a system that is genuinely transparent, competitive, and driven by consumers.”

“Right now, thanks to incentives built into the tax code, patients are locked into the health plans their employers choose. Consequently, most of us don’t have a clue what our health insurance and health care cost. We have no way to reduce those costs and no incentive to do so even if we could. Worse yet, it’s precisely when you need the system the most that it fails you. In the words of the Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt, “when you’re down on your luck, you’re unemployed, you lose your insurance.…Only the devil could ever have invented such a system.” ”

Ronald Bailey looks at what Real Healthcare Reform would look like @ http://reason.com/archives/2009/12/23/markets-not-mandates

“President Obama and other leading Democrats have proposed creating a new government health insurance program as an option for Americans under the age of 65, within the context of a new, federally regulated market — typically described as a “National Health Insurance Exchange.” Supporters claim that a new government program could deliver higher-quality health care at a lower cost than private insurance, and that competition from a government program would force private insurers to improve.”

“A full accounting shows that government programs cost more and deliver lower-quality care than private insurance. The central problem with proposals to create a new government program, however, is not that government is less efficient than private insurers, but that government can hide its inefficiencies and draw consumers away from private insurance, despite offering an inferior product.”

To access full Cato Policy Analysis  by Michael Cannon, go to http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10382

“Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-MT) health care overhaul would cost more than $2 trillion.  It would expand the deficit.  But he has carefully and methodically hidden those facts – so well that he has completely hoodwinked nearly all the major media.”

“The media are reporting that the Baucus bill would reduce the deficit by $81 billion over 10 years.  Wrong.”

“The Baucus bill assumes that Congress will allow the “sustainable growth rate” cuts in Medicare’s physician payments to occur beginning in 2012.  Yet Congress has routinely and repeatedly blocked those cuts, making Baucus’s assumption preposterous.”

Full post by Michael Cannon of The Cato Institute @ http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/10/08/baucus-bill-would-cost-more-than-2-trillion/

The Cato Institute has put together much information on the health care debate, including proposals for market oriented reform that would make medical care more affordable and more available. Cato has set up a dedicated website @ http://healthcare.cato.org/

“Last Wednesday the nation was riveted to the President’s speech on healthcare reform before Congress. While the President’s concern for the uninsured is no doubt sincere, his plan amounts to a magnanimous gift to the health insurance industry, despite any implications to the contrary.”

“For decades the insurance industry has been lobbying for mandated coverage for everyone. Imagine if the cell phone industry or the cable TV industry received such a gift from government? If government were to fine individuals simply for not buying a corporation’s product, it would be an incredible and completely unfair boon to that industry, at the expense of freedom and the free market. Yet this is what the current healthcare reform plans intend to do for the very powerful health insurance industry.”

Full column by Rep. Ron Paul (Rep.-Texas) @ http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003908.html

“For several months now, the American people…have been standing athwart the Democratic agenda of socialized medicine, yelling, “Stop!” But President Barack Obama showed them the policy equivalent of the middle finger Wednesday night. ”

“If there was anything bipartisan about the speech it was that he embraced every bad big-government idea from both sides. If he prevails, the American public won’t get “choice and competition” as he proclaimed, but a one-size-fits-all government-prescribed health care plan that it dare not refuse and dare not challenge.”

Shikha Dalmia looks at President Obama’s address on Healthcare Reform @http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/10/health-care-speech-obama-economics-opinions-columnists-shikha-dalmia.html

“In his war against terrorism, President George W. Bush declared a simple, binary formula to judge the world: “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” Now, Obama and the Democratic leadership have borrowed the same formula to draw the battle lines over health care reform, dividing the country into those who are for ObamaCare and those who are evil-mongers.”

“But the entities that will be most injurious to the nation’s health are not so much in the evil-mongers’ group but the first group, including the American Medical Association–a doctors’ cartel that has controlled the medical labor market in the U.S. like its personal fiefdom for a century. Instead of “palling up” with it, President Obama should do everything in his power to break its choke-hold and bring physician salaries–among the biggest drivers of health care costs–back down to Earth.”

Shikha Dalmia takes on the AMA in Forbes Magazine @ http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/25/american-medical-association-opinions-columnists-shikha-dalmia.html

“Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) recently told reporters that the bipartisan health reform bill he’s negotiating would cost just $900 billion over 10 years. Don’t bet on it.”

“Democrats are using smoke and mirrors to hide the impact of their health plans. Existing estimates, therefore, reflect only a fraction of the total cost. With a little hustle, however, fiscally responsible members of Congress can bring the full costs to light.”

“First, Congress should ensure that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office includes all new state and private-sector spending, as well as new federal spending, in the total cost of each bill.”

Full analysis by Michael Cannon @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10439

“While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment.”

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, proposes 8 health care reforms http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html