It was an interesting scene in the hearing room of the House Budget Committee. Medicare Chief Actuary Richard Foster was being questioned by California Republican Tom McClintock. “Two quick questions we’ve touched on, but just true or false. The two principal promises that were made in support of Obamacare were, one, that it would hold costs down. True or False?”
There was an awkward pause of about eight seconds. Foster clearly was uncomfortable answering the question. After a few seconds, he chuckled nervously, then gathered himself and said, “I would say, false, more so than true.”
“Okay. The other promise that Dr. Price had just touched on was the promise, ‘If you like your plan, you can keep it.’ True or False?”
“Uh, not true in all cases.”
Of course, we knew this. It’s just common sense and universal human experience. Private industry is much better at holding costs down than the government. We knew it was going to be this way. And we have seen that when government regulators get their fingers deeper into any industry, there are always unintended consequences, like companies figuring out that they can’t meet new government guidelines and still make a profit, so they drop plans, they drop customers, and so forth. But what is helpful about Mr. Foster’s comments is that it makes it harder for Democrats to lie. They will still lie, but their deception has been made more obvious.
Thank you, Mr. Foster. I appreciate your courage to speak the truth.
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