Health Care Contradictions and Double Talk

Representative Chris Van Hollen (D) Maryland held a town hall last Friday to discuss health care with constituents.  We’ve singled him out for attention because his presentation was so typical of what we’re hearing from the political-media establishment.

Van Hollin began with the current status of health care legislation.  He reported that three bills had been written by three committees in the House, one bill had been written by one Senate committee, and that members of a second Senate committee, known as the gang of six, were working on another bill.  Thus, when Congress reconvenes there will be five separate health care bills.

Van Hollen went on with a civics lesson about how the House and Senate would each reconcile their diverse bills into a version that would come to their respective floors for a vote, and those two bills would go to a conference committee for another round of reconciliation so that House and Senate could each vote again on a final version.

The obvious conclusion then should have been that nobody yet knows what the specifics of the final, final version will be, if the legislative process even reaches that point.  Yet, after this status update Van Hollen then went on to describe numerous specific results that he claimed would be part of “The Bill.”

In each case he asserted that “The Bill” provided for an ideal result that nobody could dislike.   No death panels, no coercive termination of life, no coverage for illegals, no bureaucratic interference between doctor and patient. Money would be saved not by cutting Medicare benefits but by cutting administrative waste from Medicare. Everyone would have insurance.  Quality would improve.  Costs would go down.  No more health care angst.  No more insurance problems.

All these positive, even Utopian results would arise from “The Bill” that Van Hollin had just taken great pains to explain did not yet exist!

He never described a process by which “The Bill” would achieve a desired result.  He never acknowledged the rule of unintended consequences that always plagues the grand schemes of Congress, always creating new crises that must be addressed with even more legislation.  He simply assured the audience that everything would be just wonderful if only they would trust him and his omnipotent Democrat colleagues.

One question from the audience was about projected costs.  The questioner complained about the current deficit and deficits projected for the next ten years, and pointed out that Medicare and Social Security represent gigantic future claims on the federal treasury that can not be paid.

Van Hollen simply assured the audience that politicians would “bend those cost curves.”  He then said “The House Bill” takes care of all that.  “It’s all paid for,” he said, with a smile.  Or maybe it was a smirk.