I know the Left never quits, but this is ridiculous.
The Left has been pursuing its dream of controlling the people through healthcare for more than a century. Those chasing the dream in Vermont had a rude awakening a few years ago when the Democrat Governor killed a single-payer proposal after realizing it would bring payroll taxes to 25 percent to pay for it. But now they’re back, pushing a bill that would phase in single-payer in Vermont over ten years. Apparently, it’s the boil-the-frog-slowly theory – hoping people won’t notice a huge tax increase if taxes are raised a little at a time as the state takes over more pieces of the healthcare system.
Meanwhile, a single-payer healthcare bill in California died last month after its main sponsor pulled it from the floor for lack of votes. Even Democrats don’t all agree single-payer is a good idea. The bill would have cost $400 billion a year, doubling California’s budget. It would have turned everything upside down even though only a tiny fraction of California residents are without insurance or public healthcare assistance. But you can bet the radical nurses associations and other Leftists will try to bring single-payer back next year.
Leftists are still chasing the dream of single-payer at the federal level, as well. The socialist sympathizer Pramila Jayapal is back with another single-payer bill which has 120 co-sponsors in the House. But if they can’t get the whole enchilada at once, salami-slicing their way to single-payer will do. Super-sizing Obamacare subsidies is just the first slice. To paraphrase a Tibetan proverb, beware of salami offered on a sharp knife.
Public option insurance, now in its second year in Washington state, is another slice. But it’s not going so great, there. Enrollment is nothing to write home about. Advocates are already talking about forcing hospitals to participate because hospitals won’t voluntarily join public provider networks on their own. Other states planning public option insurance are looking at this and building coercion into their plans right from the start. America, land of the free – unless you’re a hospital, I guess.
A single-payer bill being considered in New York would raise taxes to unprecedented levels. The bill would spread the misery around through hikes in payroll taxes, income taxes, and capital gains taxes which would more than double the state’s already stratospheric tax take. The bill would hit self-employed people especially hard. Careful what you wish for. High state tax rates mean wealth will pick up and move to another state. Just ask Maryland which tried to institute a millionaire’s tax some years ago.
Meanwhile, more towns are virtue-signaling their support for single-payer. The most recent town resolutions are pending in Ft. Collins where the Democratic Socialists of America are involved, and Cleveland Heights. Gotta hand it to the Left. Pretty clever to get politicians to vote for something their town will never have to pay for. Great way to make it look like the idea is gaining momentum.
The Left has also taken the fight for single-payer to the AMA, the membership of which narrowly defeated a support proposal in 2019, encouraging supporters to try again. It’s a certainty the fight’s not over there yet, given that the AMA has recently gone Woke, urging doctors to recognize their minority patients as “oppressed” and “historically marginalized”.
There are lots of reasons to oppose single-payer. In my most recent commentary on this subject [1/14/22], I talked about how healthcare will become totally politicized and doled out the way Washington wants, not the way you want and you won’t have any options left. Today, I’ve mentioned tax hikes in single-payer proposals in Vermont, California, and New York. The CBO found a year ago financing federal single-payer could double income tax rates, or worse. It found more recently single-payer could cut GDP by 10 percent if you take away the assumption it could be financed by cutting the federal budget in other places. It’s not likely you could ever cut the budget enough in other places to pay for single-payer. That leaves destructive tax hikes as the most likely outcome if the Left succeeds.
The Left never quits, so we must keep fighting. Remember, single-payer is not about healthcare. Relatively few people are without insurance, government healthcare assistance, or the means to pay for it themselves. This means the fight is about controlling the people through their healthcare, not about healthcare itself, just like the congressman let slip during the Obamacare fight. The Left makes single-payer sound so sweet, but what it really means is the Left’s complete domination over the rest of us. It comes down to this: Do you want to keep your freedom or not?
