As Barack Obama, Kathleen Sibelius, and a tribe of angry Democrats prepare a round-the-clock-blame-all-health-care-ills-on-insurance-companies full court press, a little perspective is in order.
Barack Obama lashes out at the insurance indusrty.
In 2007, the United States spent a total of $2.2 trillion on health care. Of that $2.2 trillion, insurance company profits accounted for $13 billion. That amounts to less than 1% of total health care spending.
Real reform would deal with the issue of why health costs are rising. Clearly, from the figure above, it isn’t because of health insurance profits. Insurance rates are a reflection of the underlying costs of what is being insured. I guarantee if I approached Lloyd’s of London and wanted insurance against a Martian invasion the policy would be pretty cheap.
No doubt about it, health insurance reform for the Democrats is about power. Mr. Obama said during the campaign that he would “fundamentally remake” the United States of America. I don’t think he was kidding. Americans better realize what Mr. Obama’s end game actually is, and fast. Hint. It is not laissez-faire government.
Factcheck.org did a powerful analysis of the health care lie last June. It is a great read, a fact versus fiction assessment that needs to be shouted from the rooftops as soon as possible.
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John Romano is the publisher and editor of Yes, But However!, a musician, a former political correspondent for BBC Radio London, and a serial web entrepreneur. Follow him on twitter: twitter.com/yesbuthowever or John Romano on Google+John Romano article archive.
