ObamaCare And The Baby Boomers

By Harris Sherline
August 10, 2009

The adage, "You get what you pay for," never seems more apropos to me than when politicians pontificate about how things should work -- and at the same time display their ignorance of the economic system that has been the engine of America's success, delivering the highest standard of living in the world for over 200 years.

The most recent example of this lack of understanding is highlighted by the heated debate over the proposed health care initiative that's currently working its way through Congress. The health care proposals that are now in the works are a graphic example of the limitations of thinking that hark back to the failure of the communist governments, namely, that it is possible to craft a system that codifies every conceivable alternative decision that might be available to consumers, with the added overlay of rules and regulations that lead or direct people to the decision that the central planners want. It didn't work then, and doesn't work now, and it won't work in the future.

Talking about his economic program, President Obama said (Friday, August 7), "I'm convinced that we can see a light at the end of the tunnel." However, what he fails to recognize is that the light at the other end of the tunnel is another train carrying the baby boomers that's headed right at him.

The ObamaCare solution to the nation's health care problem is to provide health care insurance for some 45 million additional people and presumably to help pay for it by cutting the Medicare and Medicaid fees that are paid to the doctors and hospitals.

However, we haven't heard much, if anything, about the impact of the baby boomers, who are rapidly becoming eligible for Medicare. There are a couple of interesting facts about this group: (1) Currently, there are an estimated 74 million baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). That's around 25 percent of the total U.S. population, and (2) By 2006, approximately 330 people were turning 60 every hour, or 7,920 new seniors every day. Think about how these numbers factor into the demand for health care.

So far there hasn't been much discussion about the impact this group will have on the cost of Obama's proposed health care plan, in addition to the 45 million uninsured we are being told must be covered by expanding the nation's health care system. Assuming the 45 million number is real (I happen to believe it is highly inflated), a total of about 120 million new people will have to be covered by the nation's expanded the health care system.

One question that comes to mind is: Where are the doctors, nurses and other health care professionals who will care for everyone? ScienceDaily.com reported (April 25, 200, "America's aging citizens are facing a health care workforce too small and unprepared to meet their needs...The current fragmented system of care desperately requires an increase in better-prepared personnel to sustain itself...The combination of the aging of the Baby Boom generation and the increase in life expectancy is going to yield a doubling of the numbers of older people. And it's important to understand that older people themselves account for a disproportionate amount of the utilization of health care resources."

If Obama expects to help pay for this massive expansion of the health care system by reducing Medicare and Medicaid payments for services, it can lead to only one result: rationing of health care. And the logical group to bear the brunt of this will be the elderly. Current statistics indicate that about 25 percent of an individual's lifetime health care expenditures are made in the last few years of life, and an estimated 27 percent of Medicare's annual $327 billion budget goes to care for patients in their final year of life, so the only way to cut these costs will be to deny care to seniors. In short, to save money by having them die sooner.

There's no way ObamaCare can avoid increasing health care funding substantially. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has scored the cost at well over a trillion dollars, which means increasing taxes for everyone, including the middle class, who Obama has repeatedly promised will not see their taxes increase by "one dime."

Indications are that the senior population is rapidly catching on to this scam, with a significant majority reported to be opposed to ObamaCare.

The light at the end of the tunnel that Obama sees is rapidly bearing down on him, and it doesn't look good.

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/hsherl ... 8101.shtml