Even the NYTimes calls it that in “Health Reform Myths,” an op-ed by Paul Krugman this morning. The teaser starts out, “Well-informed people are buying into three big myths about Obamacare.”
Mr. Krugman gets it wrong, though. “This is a reasonable, responsible plan,” he writes. “Dont let anyone tell you otherwise.”
I’m here to tell you otherwise and I hope you listen.
“The second myth is that the proposed reform does nothing to control costs. To support this claim, critics point to reports by the Medicare actuary, who predicts that total national health spending would be slightly higher in 2019 with reform than without it.
“Even if this prediction were correct, it points to a pretty good bargain. The actuarys assessment of the Senate bill, for example, finds that it would raise total health care spending by less than 1 percent…
Health care costs more than $6,300 a piece for every man woman and child in this country today. That’s already verging on criminal. Raising that cost, even a measly $63, ain’t a bargain. In the real world we need to cut health care costs in half. ObamaCare doesn’t even pretend to try.
50 percent off? Now that’s a bargain.