Reason‘s Nick Gillespie does his best John Stossel impression in explaining why whatever winds up in the final compromise health care bill will be just the beginning.
[Y]ou don’t have to side with those who warn of euthanasia classes to recognize that government programs often end up doing all kinds of things that weren’t in politicians’ original plans. Call it mission creep. Politicians pass a program, and then the scope of the program grows and changes.
It’s happened with everything from state-level health insurance plans to the Troubled Asset Relief Program. TARP’s original mission was spelled out in its name—the government would purchase troubled assets from financial institutions. However, just over a year later TARP’s mission has exploded, and billions in TARP funds have gone to bail out General Motors, Chrysler, and struggling homeowners. TARP money may even fund another stimulus.
He’s right that Social Security, the war on drugs, TARP and other programs radically evolved from their original intent. Lobbying, a bureaucracy run amok, and lack of Congressional oversight are all part of the problem. So are unintended consequences, like the well-intentioned requirement that insurance plans cover exotic alternative treatments making everyone else’s premiums less affordable.
Frankly, however, that’s the least of the problem with this particular bill. The reason this thing will morph, rather quickly, into something else is that it doesn’t solve the problems that it set out to solve and for which real political and economic pressures will remain. First, we’ll still have millions of uninsured people. Second, health costs are still going to be rapidly accelerating into unsustainable territory.
via Glenn Reynolds
