E!! The True Conservative Story™

Remember my post on the unsustainability of the Canadian health care system?  Well here’s a link to an article including a true story from a Canadian woman suffering with cancer.  Read it and weep – for her.

Like many Americans last week, I tuned in for the 30-minute Barack-o-mercial. 

In between the anecdotal close-ups of struggling American families – a widow working two jobs and raising two kids; a husband and father worried about his job at the Ford plant – I noted that Obama’s megacommercial failed to present hard data on the cost of his proposed programs and said nothing about our huge federal deficit and the corresponding budget pressures he will face once in office. 

Obam’s description of his health care plan – which “includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions, and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year” – sounds very nice, but there has been no independent economic analysis confirming that costs will really be reduced by that (or any) amount.

Obama simply Hopes that spending $50 billion on his proposed Changes over the next five years will save the system money.  But even if his optimistic estimates prove out, Obama’s plan does not stipulate that the net savings by insurance and health care providers will result in lower premiums for consumers.

And then we have Obama’s promises to “cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year…  Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee they hire…  Eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas…  Help homeowners by freezing foreclosures for 90 days… Provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open…”

Independent analysts have estimated that combined with our current budget shortfalls, these and other of Obama’s proposals will likely result in a $1 trillion deficit next year.  That being unthinkable, some purging will be necessary.  But which of his programs will Obama cut, and why has he been promising all of them if he knows at least some must go?

Though much of his infomercial focused on the “hard realities” of life for select American families, Obama seems unwilling or unable to face reality himself.  It seems he could stand to learn something from that widowed mother of two who has to settle for half instead of whole gallons of milk when the money runs short – and doesn’t promise her family otherwise on the way to the store.

This article on the problems with the Canadian public health care system is worth reading. The opener:

TORONTO, ON – Provincial spending on health care is growing faster than revenues with six of 10 provinces projected to be spending more than 50 per cent of all available revenue on health care by 2036, says a new report released today by independent research organization the Fraser Institute.

The Fraser Institute’s piece quotes Director Brett Skinner:

“Over the past ten years, health care spending in nine out of 10 provinces has grown at an unsustainable rate. Unless governments find a better way to finance health care, then provincial governments will likely be looking at tax hikes, further rationing of medical goods and services, or ugly trade-offs with other important spending areas.”

Apparently Alberta is the only Canadian province that’s managed to keep its revenues apace with health care expenditures. How? Energy-driven revenue increases.

But in provinces without large energy resources, revenue has been increased through – what else? – increased taxes. Skinner points to Ontario’s “health premium” income surtax as an example of a provincial government trying to create new taxes to cover health care costs. Says Skinner:

“The tax burden cannot continue to rise over the long-term unless people are willing to accept declining rates of economic growth and lower standards of living. Trying to drive long-term revenue growth through tax increases is futile.”

The report concludes that Canada’s public health insurance system is not financially sustainable through public means and recommends several changes. You can read about them at the end of the piece.

All suggested changes have one thing in common: they are private sector solutions. I say we learn from our neighbors to the north and seek private sector solutions now.