Health Care Isn't Free

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office just posted a brief analysis of the draft legislation for health care reform. No surprise that it is going to cost you--a lot.

According to our preliminary assessment, enacting the proposal would result in a net increase in federal budget deficits of about $1.0 trillion over the 2010-2019 period. When fully implemented, about 39 million individuals would obtain coverage through the new insurance exchanges. At the same time, the number of people who had coverage through an employer would decline by about 15 million (or roughly 10 percent), and coverage from other sources would fall by about 8 million, so the net decrease in the number of people uninsured would be about 16 million or 17 million.

So, if we quickly do the math: $1,000,000,000,000 / 17,000,000 = $58,823 per net individual insured by the plan--over a ten year period. This does not include the cost of debt in the form of interest payments and inflation needed to fund the plan--and does not include the possibility of significant expansion of Medicaid in the future.

This will be funded by increased taxes at some point. The "Affordable Health Choices Act" goes into committee for debate today. Call your congressional representatives and let them know how much you are willing pay for this program.