In the ongoing debate regarding the Democrat's nationalization of health care, precious little time is being focused on a discussion of the actual market changes that will occur as a result of the passage and implementation of this unconstitutional piece of legislation.
What today’s Democrats, and believers in Government action of all stripes, believe is that the
market is like a giant Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man – giant, lumbering, and able to withstand nearly any amount of central committee diktats without really changing either its nature or behavior. Of course, the real-life evidence is that the market is agile, responsive, demanding, fickle, and smarter than bureaucrats.
Tinkering with reimbursement rates on socialized medicine programs in an effort to realize “savings” to government bodies already occurs. The effect of the tinkering is that it shrinks the supply of goods and services being bought by the socialized medicine program recipients.
In a self-regulating market, a decrease in supply will result in an increase in prices, which will decrease the total demand for the product or service, and the market will find its equilibrium at the new higher price. However, in a world of government price controls, such as the reimbursement rates for prescription drugs in a Medicare plan, while the supply is decreasing, the price cannot change which inevitable leads to rationing or shortages. Demand will outstrip supply.
What the government relies on in this scenario is a belief that businesses are irrational – they will conduct their primary business in a way that causes financial loss. As we are seeing now in Washington state, several pharmacy chains are ceasing to fill new Medicare prescriptions because they lose money on the deal.
What is a Democrat to do when her great economic schemes wash up on the rocks of reality? Step 1 is denial. “Doug Porter, the state's director of Medicaid, said Medicaid recipients should be able to readily find another pharmacy because "we have many more pharmacy providers in our network than we need."
Step 2 is anger. “Insurance profits are bad for my health.” And we are being defrauded by “fly by night operators.”
Step 3 is more government diktats. Hey, “we won the election.”
Soon, Washington state will make accepting Medicare prescriptions mandatory for a pharmacy license. Democrats are happy to force people to do things as a “cost of doing business.” In practical respects, this means costs for things that are not Medicare prescriptions will go up. This is an indirect tax on all consumers at the pharmacy, including food and medicine brought to you by enlightened bureaucrats.
More philosophically, being forced to do business in a manner that is not a purely voluntary transaction is slavery. Being forced to do things because the government says you should (like buying health insurance whether you want to or not) is slavery. Even a fifth grader knows the 13th Amendment prohibits slavery. The question is: are Democrats smarter than a fifth grader.
What today’s Democrats, and believers in Government action of all stripes, believe is that the
market is like a giant Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man – giant, lumbering, and able to withstand nearly any amount of central committee diktats without really changing either its nature or behavior. Of course, the real-life evidence is that the market is agile, responsive, demanding, fickle, and smarter than bureaucrats.Tinkering with reimbursement rates on socialized medicine programs in an effort to realize “savings” to government bodies already occurs. The effect of the tinkering is that it shrinks the supply of goods and services being bought by the socialized medicine program recipients.
In a self-regulating market, a decrease in supply will result in an increase in prices, which will decrease the total demand for the product or service, and the market will find its equilibrium at the new higher price. However, in a world of government price controls, such as the reimbursement rates for prescription drugs in a Medicare plan, while the supply is decreasing, the price cannot change which inevitable leads to rationing or shortages. Demand will outstrip supply.
What the government relies on in this scenario is a belief that businesses are irrational – they will conduct their primary business in a way that causes financial loss. As we are seeing now in Washington state, several pharmacy chains are ceasing to fill new Medicare prescriptions because they lose money on the deal.
What is a Democrat to do when her great economic schemes wash up on the rocks of reality? Step 1 is denial. “Doug Porter, the state's director of Medicaid, said Medicaid recipients should be able to readily find another pharmacy because "we have many more pharmacy providers in our network than we need."
Step 2 is anger. “Insurance profits are bad for my health.” And we are being defrauded by “fly by night operators.”
Step 3 is more government diktats. Hey, “we won the election.”
Soon, Washington state will make accepting Medicare prescriptions mandatory for a pharmacy license. Democrats are happy to force people to do things as a “cost of doing business.” In practical respects, this means costs for things that are not Medicare prescriptions will go up. This is an indirect tax on all consumers at the pharmacy, including food and medicine brought to you by enlightened bureaucrats.
More philosophically, being forced to do business in a manner that is not a purely voluntary transaction is slavery. Being forced to do things because the government says you should (like buying health insurance whether you want to or not) is slavery. Even a fifth grader knows the 13th Amendment prohibits slavery. The question is: are Democrats smarter than a fifth grader.
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