I discuss the latest push for a "global spending cap" on health care -- but public and private.
Here is the opening:
Free-market economists have long known that “controls breed controls.” In health care, leading Obamacare supporters are now proposing unprecedented new government controls over all medical spending — private as well as public — to “solve” problems caused by prior controls. Welcome to ObamaCare 2.0.
In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), several prominent Obamacare supporters have called for a binding “global spending target for both public and private payers.” In regular English, this means a government-enforced cap on how much Americans may spend in aggregate on their health care, both public and private.
The co-authors of this article include former Obama administration officials Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel (former White House health care advisor and brother of Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff), Dr. Donald Berwick (former head of Medicare), and Peter Orszag (former budget director)...In particular, I cover 5 implications of this new approach.
1) This means rationing.These "global spending caps" have already been enacted into law in Massachusetts. Under a second Obama administration, the rest of the US would likely follow.
2) Get ready for the lobbyist feeding frenzy.
3) The government will exert increasing control over how doctors can practice.
4) Controls breed controls.
5) We need free-market reforms more than ever.
(Read the full text of: "In Top Journal, Obamacare Boosters Push 'Global Spending Target'".)
Update: Thank you, Instapundit, for the link!
