Month: June 2010

If the availability of healthcare entails or creates a “right” to other people’s wealth and labor, shouldn’t also housing and food and nutrition?  Of course, the popular and accepted belief is that the Constitution authorizes the “regulation” of all facets of industry (as written and originally intended it doesn’t).  Liberal constitutional jurisprudence has allowed over the past 60 years or so a nearly unlimited power grab by Congress under its Constitutional authority to ”  As the Supreme Court noted ages ago, the power to regulate includes the power to destroy something.  If Congress has the power to regulate anything that has an impact on commerce, it may also authorize total control or nationalization of the very same thing.  Good logic, but bad Constitutional law … .  The judicial branch really dropped the historical and constitutional ball in limiting Congressional power grabs.

In a moment of unscripted candor, Congresswoman Waters expressed her belief that fuel is also within the federal government’s scope of appropriation. If controlling healthcare services is within Congressional power, why not control or nationalization of the fuel industry?

One can only imagine Ms. Waters’ take on socializing/nationalizing the oil industry after BP Oil’s ongoing fiasco …

Over at The City: The Fix Is In, Why Britain’s National Health Service spends so much and does so little

and this: Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model

NRO reports that a recent survey of human resource and benefit specialists indicates Obamacare is going to adversely affect quality and cost of care in the U.S.  Among the findings: 

● 90 percent believe that Obamacare “will increase their organization’s health care benefit costs”;

● 88 percent intend to pass the increases onto employees by increasing employee premium contributions or other cost-sharing measures;

● 74 percent intend to “reduce health benefits and programs” by using stingier health plans, restricting eligibility for health coverage, and using spousal waivers or surcharges.

Well, at least nationalized healthcare systems provide equally bad and ineffecient care to everyone, at least in theory.  In reality, there are always “preferred” routes for those with means, see, e.g. the Canadian premier flying to the USA and the UK’s private insurance add-ons.