'Health Care Bill Represents Change Nobody Believes In'
(Wall Street Journal editorial) -- In its Dec. 21 editorial, The Wall Street Journal writes that the Senate health care bill "is so reckless that it has to be rammed through on a partisan vote on Christmas Eve." The editorial states, "Barring some extraordinary reversal, it now seems as if (Senate leaders) have the 60 votes they need" to approve "the 2,100-page bill." The editorial notes a cost analysis that was recently released by the insurer WellPoint, finding "that a healthy 25-year-old in Milwaukee buying coverage on the individual market will see his costs rise by 178%. A small business based in Richmond with eight employees in average health will see a 23% increase. Insurance costs for a 40-year-old family with two kids living in Indianapolis will pay 106% more." The editorial predicts "steep declines in choice and quality," resulting from actions such as the health care bill's "$2 billion annual tax — rising to $3 billion in 2018 — that will be leveled against medical device makers, among the most innovative U.S. industries." Finally, the bill will "blow up" the federal deficit, the editorial states. "Even though Medicare's unfunded liabilities are already about 2.6 times larger than the entire U.S. economy in 2008, Democrats are crowing that ObamaCare will cost 'only' $871 billion over the next decade" as it "sets up government-run 'exchanges' that will subsidize insurance for those earning up to 400% of the poverty level, or $96,000 for a family of four in 2016." <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398304574598130440164954.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop>
