Here's the summary from a San Jose Mercury News article that popped up in my RSS reader this morning:
Study: Health care reform a good deal for California, other states
A study by two think tanks concludes that the federal health care law will allow states to insure dramatically more low-income families, with the federal government picking up the lion's share of the costs.
So some eggheads think it's a great thing that the government is expanding eligibility for government-run healthcare to the small number of people who aren't already eligible for one (out of the many) government healthcare programs. Those same people who, by the way, already don't take advantage of the existing programs they are eligible for.
Now a headline writer gets involved and asserts it's a great deal because the basically bankrupt state of California won't have to pay for most of this new largesse. Instead the basically bankrupt Federal government will pick up most of the tab.
Now, I ask you, wise reader, where do both the State and Federal governments get their money from? That's right—you, the 50% percent of Americans who actually pay taxes. So see, you're still paying for the program, but thank goodness it's not coming from the money California pulls out of your pocket, it's coming from the money Uncle Sam pulls out of your pocket! Doesn't that make you feel much better?
(Oh, and this ignores the inconvenient fact that Californians pay into the Federal government far more than they get back, so we don't even get the full bang for our buck.)
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