Obamacare a perverse benefit of citizenship

The op-ed by James Ahrens on Dec. 22 extolled the virtues of Obamacare and implored us to give it a chance. Trouble is to do so requires that we sacrifice our individual freedom and liberty.

Failure to adhere to the mandate results in a penalty or a tax — legal minds seem to be disagreeing on which it is, but it is one or the other. Our government is requiring us for the first time in my memory to buy a specific product, whether used or not.

Mr. Ahrens posits that Obamacare has already saved Montanans money and improved their lives. An amazing claim given that as of Dec. 22, most enrollees couldn’t even enroll, and the enabling legislation has been changed approximately 14 times without congressional approval.

Obamacare, he contends will provide us with a health care plan worthy of this great country because our system of health care has been broken for years. I am somewhat confused as to why so many people stay in the U.S. for their medical care if the system is so broken. Why do Canadians and other foreigners travel here for care? The sky isn’t falling and Mr. Ahrens’ kudos about the Affordable Care Act are very premature.

Is it not ironic that a career lobbyist, advocate, ex-hospital administrator who spent about 20 years presiding over the Montana Hospital Association believes that the delivery system here is irreparably broken? It clearly begs the question. It is not an image I would want in my career’s rearview mirror.

Since the inception of Medicare in 1965, we’ve heard similar promises of health care reform to reduce costs, enhance accountability, improve access and outcomes. In 1982, a massive new prospective payment plan, the brainchild of Yale academicians, was introduced by Medicare officials. If, as Mr. Ahrens claims, the system is still broken, how must that massive improvement have worked out? Are not the costs of health care still Brobdingnagian? Do rational people actually believe that we can provide care to 30 million additional insureds and that costs will be reduced?

Mr. Ahrens would rejoin that hospitals and other providers pass through the cost of uncompensated care to taxpayers as a hidden tax. Hospital providers do exactly that when they can because the market is so insulated from free market forces. This is a rational response by providers to an irrational marketplace. The recipients of care often don’t even examine their bill because some other entity is responsible for paying it. But to assume that a federal program can improve on the invisible hand of the marketplace is foolish given the history of cost increases over the past 50 years.

Obamacare promises to insure nearly everyone, but only 47 percent of us are law-abiding taxpayers, so we will be paying for someone else’s free stuff.

All the polls I reviewed indicate that the vast majority of Americans are not in favor of mandated health care. We must wake up. How much hypocrisy and lawlessness can we endure under Obamacare?

The most concise description of Obamacare I’ve seen is erroneously attributed to Ben Stein: “Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen. And now, any of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove citizenship will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens.”

Isn’t that a perverse benefit of citizenship? It is Orwellian.

Now comes Mr. Ahrens, a well-meaning gentleman who has earned a nice living and retirement by administering tax-exempt health-care organizations. They pay no taxes, but ostensibly must think it is something the rest of us should willingly do because poor and needy people shouldn’t be deprived of health care.

Beware of bureaucrats telling you the sky is falling and that there must be some way to provide care for the poor and needy without overhauling the entire system.

If Obamacare is successfully implemented, why should tax-exempt providers not pay taxes like the rest of us? Shouldn’t they have skin in the game? According to Obamacare supporters, the need for charitable care promises to be reduced dramatically.

It gets more bizarre. Many of you have read how wealthy influential members of Congress indicated their desire to opt out of Obamacare. Some staff members have been allowed to keep their existing plans. Some staff members may be exempted because Obamacare is too expensive. Does this not smack of smoky, back-room deals depicted in old Hollywood movies?

Well, if you agree with me that tax-exempt providers and their associations should pay their fair share of taxes and that Congress should eat its own cooking, I suggest you prepare for disappointment. It has been my experience in the health care field that whenever a bureaucratic program is reorganized to improve efficiency and effectiveness, it is almost immediately indistinguishable from its predecessor.

Finally, let’s go along with Mr. Ahrens and give this a chance until we have a different chance. The chance to make a choice in the midterms to elect congressional representatives who pledge to repeal this socialistic abomination and who possess the will to do it.

Ron Phelps is a resident of Columbia Falls.