We're From the Government and We Want to Help You Stay Healthy

Today's Awfulaw winner is...

S.391 : A bill to provide affordable, guaranteed private health coverage that will make Americans healthier and can never be taken away.
Sponsor: Sen Wyden, Ron [OR] (introduced 2/5/2009) Cosponsors (12)
Committees: Senate Finance Latest Major Action: 2/5/2009 Referred to Senate committee.
Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Suffering apparently from a back log of bills to put up on the website however, the text of this bill was not yet available. Instead, I visited the sponsoring Senator's website. Here's what I found, in part, at the Senator's website.

The plan, known as the Healthy Americans Act, would:

1. guarantee private health care coverage for all Americans;
2. provide health benefits equal to those that Members of Congress now enjoy;
3. provide incentives for individuals and insurers to focus on prevention, wellness and disease management;
4. establish tough cost containment measures that save $1.48 trillion over 10 years; and
5. be fully paid for with the $2.2 trillion currently spent on health care in America today.

He didn't number them, but I did so I can more easily reference them. There are more details on the Senator's website, but I will leave my criticism to these bullet points. I know you probably have other things to do this week.

1. If the government is guaranteeing health care coverage, it isn't private.

2. Contrary to popular belief, the benefits Members of Congress enjoy are the same as other Federal employees. That is to say, they pay a portion of the premium and pick from a range of plans. However, the number of choices is far less than what is currently available in the marketplace for individuals.

3. Individual and insurers already have the incentive to focus on prevention, wellness and disease management; health and profits respectively.

4 and 5. It is a sign of the times that in order to impress us with a number, the Senator resorts to showing a 10 year savings of 1.48 trillion dollars. If he were to say 148 billion dollars per year on average, it just wouldn't sound like that much. [rolls eyes] It is even more amazing he can predict to the third significant digit how much would be saved. Is he sure his plan won't save say 1.5 or 1.4 trillion dollars over ten years?

Cost containment? Does the Senator truly believe cost containment isn't already being practiced? Does he truly believe his methods won't lead to unintended consequences?

How about the existing dollars claim? His website points out that employers who currently don't offer coverage to employees will be required to pay their employees more than they do now so the employees can cover their newly mandatory health insurance premiums. This is a new expense and I guarantee it will put businesses out of business and employees out of work.