Massachusetts, Germany foreshadow failure of ObamaCare

The signs of course have already reared there ugly heads, such as this one: Hope and change: "The Obama administration has not ruled out turning sick people away" from ObamaCare high risk pool. AP: ObamaCare may mean longer ER waits, crowding. And this one: ObamaCare: Doctors refusing new Medicare patients because of low government reimbursement setting a new high. Massachusetts in particular was in the news over the course of the ObamaCare debate because of its high cost and long lines. In fact, I have shown these videos several times before:

From the Wall Street Journal via memeorandum: The Massachusetts Health-Care ‘Train Wreck’

President Obama said earlier this year that the health-care bill that Congress passed three months ago is "essentially identical" to the Massachusetts universal coverage plan that then-Gov. Mitt Romney signed into law in 2006. No one but Mr. Romney disagrees.

As events are now unfolding, the Massachusetts plan couldn't be a more damning indictment of ObamaCare. The state's universal health-care prototype is growing more dysfunctional by the day, which is the inevitable result of a health system dominated by politics.

In the first good news in months, a state appeals board has reversed some of the price controls on the insurance industry that Gov. Deval Patrick imposed earlier this year. Late last month, the panel ruled that the action had no legal basis and ignored "economic realties."

In April, Mr. Patrick's insurance commissioner had rejected 235 of 274 premium increases state insurers had submitted for approval for individuals and small businesses. The carriers said these increases were necessary to cover their expected claims over the coming year, as underlying state health costs continue to rise at 8% annually. By inventing an arbitrary rate cap, the administration was in effect ordering the carriers to sell their products at a loss.

Mr. Patrick has promised to appeal the panel's decision and find some other reason to cap rates. Yet a raft of internal documents recently leaked to the press shows this squeeze play was opposed even within his own administration.

In an April message to his staff, Robert Dynan, a career insurance commissioner responsible for ensuring the solvency of state carriers, wrote that his superiors "implemented artificial price caps on HMO rates. The rates, by design, have no actuarial support. This action was taken against my objections and without including me in the conversation."

Read the rest (it's a very good read), but you get the point. The healthcare system isn't about healthcare anymore. It's about politics. Why in the world would anyone think that ObamaCare will be any different on the national level? In related news across the pond is this from Steve at motorcitytimes: A Glimpse of Our ObamaCare Future. Via Spiegel International:

Facing a projected shortfall of 11 billion euros for Germany’s health care system in 2011, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government agreed on Tuesday to increase contributions. But the plan is a far cry from radical reform, leading to calls for the country’s health minister to resign.

Germany’s government has been arguing for months about how best to reform the country’s chronically indebted health care system. On Tuesday, leaders of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition finally reach agreement.

The deal, presented by Health Minister Philipp Rösler — from Merkel’s junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats — calls for contributions to rise from 14.9 percent of employee income to 15.5. The contributions remain split 50-50 between workers and employers. In addition, additional charges demanded by insurers to eliminate shortfalls will no longer be capped at one percent of employee salaries.

...Rising costs have dogged Germany’s health care system for years, and multi-billion euro deficits have become the norm.

Artificial price controls do not contain cost. A bureaucrat saying that a $5 product is worth $2 doesn't make the product cost any less to produce. And if that producer is forced to sell it at a loss, it doesn't make any sense to make that product any more, does it now?