Shapiro: Five Hidden Costs of ObamaCare

Gary Shapiro, President & CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, recently wrote a piece for Huffington Post on the "Five Hidden Costs of Health Care: What the Government Doesn't Want You to Know".

The first four are important points and he discusses each in detail:

1. The new law will increase the federal budget deficit.
2. The new law will reduce jobs in private industry.
3. The new law will increase government jobs.
4. The new law will hurt health care for those with critical needs.

But I wanted to highlight his 5th point with an extended excerpt:

5. The new law will reduce American innovation.

The new law will reduce innovation in several ways. First, specific taxes on innovative medical devices and new costs for drug companies mean a special tax on innovation. New taxes will be added to the overall cost of treatment and innovation thus will be discouraged.

Second, innovative medical treatments will be discouraged in America. Articles by American doctors dominate almost every medical journal in the world. Today's system encourages breakthroughs and creativity. Yet the new health law encourages cookie-cutter treatments and punishes deviation from treatment norms thereby discouraging innovation.

Third, the bill imposes several new taxes on investment. This means less money will go to new businesses and taking risks. The result will be less money for research, development and innovation.

(Read the full text of "Five Hidden Costs of Health Care: What the Government Doesn't Want You to Know".)

In my opinion, this could be one of the most under-appreciated consequences of ObamaCare. The mind is man's basic means of survival. Our ability to produce and create new value is how we live. Stifling innovation will result in technological stagnation and death.

(Link via J.G.)