Nancy Pelosi Assumes That ObamaCare Will Destroy Private Insurance and Put Everyone on Government Insurance

It's difficult to say she "assumes" this, because she's utterly stupid and it's questionable she's thought this through.

Still, let me assume for one moment she is not diagnosably retarded and can follow her own implications.

She wants to consider (that means, she wants to impose) a Value Added Tax to every good or service sold in America. However, she claims this will not increase the prices of goods.

How can she make such a claim?

Watch the reasoning:

"I would say, Put everything on the table and subject it to the scrutiny that it deserves," Pelosi told Rose when asked if the VAT has any appeal to her.

The VAT is a tax on manufacturers at each stage of production on the amount of value an additional producer adds to a product.

Pelosi argued that the VAT would level the playing field between U.S. and foreign manufacturers, the latter of which do not have pension and healthcare costs included in the price of their goods because their governments provide those services, financed by similar taxes.

"They get a tax off of that and they use that money to pay the healthcare for their own workers," Pelosi said, using the example of auto manufacturers. "So their cars coming into our country don't have a healthcare component cost.

"Somewhere along the way, a value-added tax plays into this. Of course, we want to take down the healthcare cost, that's one part of it," the Speaker added. "But in the scheme of things, I think it's fair look at a value- added tax as well."

Got that? American products currently include in their cost the cost of providing health insurance for the workers making the products.

This puts them at a competitive disadvantage with foreign products, she asserts, where health insurance is provided by the government and thus not included in the price of a product.

So: If we merely impose a Value Added Tax on everything, we can use that money to pay for health insurance for everyone, and companies will not have to pay for health insurance. It will be provided by the government, paid for through the VAT.

Assumption not-well-hidden in that: All US companies will stop paying for employee insurance and instead let the government provide it.

That assumption is needed for her claim. For, if any company continues providing health insurance, their prices will go up -- as they are paying double for health insurance, once directly for their own employees, twice indirectly to cover everyone else through the VAT -- and thus would be a competitive disadvantage against all other US companies (and foreign companies) relying on government-provided insurance, and not paying for insurance out of their own pockets.

Pelosi assumes, then, that all US companies will drop private employee coverage like a bad habit and let everyone go on the government system, rather than bankrupting themselves to pay double health care costs.

And she's right in that assumption.

But then: Whatever shall we make of Barack Obama's oft-repeated claim, "Let me be clear: If you have insurance, you get to keep your insurance"?

Thanks to Andrew's Dad.

posted by Ace at 03:17 PM

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