HINGHAM COMMENTARY: Not embracing "Obama-care"

Michael F. Taft asks the question, “What ‘dire consequences’ do we face from the recent legislation and the President’s comments about it?” I think there are consequences that should be understood, whether they are dire or not is a matter of opinion.

The bill is going to cost over a trillion dollars. A trillion dollars isn’t what it used to be, but it’s still a lot of money. The “bill” was “sold” as budget neutral. This means that there were revenues in the bill equal to the costs in the bill. But revenue neutral only applies to the government’s net cost of the bill and not to the total cost of the bill. In addition, the revenues and cost savings in the bill were in many cases not real, not related to the new health care programs.

For example, the bill included revenues from taking over the student loan program (which I am sure the Federal government will do a better job running then they have with their other loan programs). These revenues may or may not happen in the end and have nothing to do with health care. The bill also included Medicare budget cuts to physicians that are going to be substantially reversed, so the cost savings are not real.

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