Health care expert debunks Obama's assumptions

Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and author of The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care, interviewed by Frontpagemag:

"I think the President believes that government is more efficient than the private sector and can do things cheaper. We know this is not the case. Since 1970, according to PRI scholar Dr. Jeff Anderson, medicare and medicaid costs per patient are about 35 percent more expensive than the costs of private insurance. Also, government economists and politicians are never able to estimate the cost of a government program. Look at Medicare--when it began in 1965, the cost was $3 billion per year. The precursor to the Congressional Budget Office predicted that Medicare would cost about $12 billion. In fact, it cost $110 billion. Medicare and Medicaid are projected to cost about $700 billion each by 2017 and they will be bankrupt. There is also tremendous fraud and abuse in these programs.

President Obama wants us all in a government-run health care program. It will not be cheap. The estimates of the various bills on the table today range between $1 trillion and $1.6 trillion over 10 years. They will not be deficit neutral. The CBO is saying they will add about $239 billion to the deficit at the end of 10 years. We will all face increased taxes, higher deficits, rationed care, and a lower quality of care.

Canadians have an escape valve--30,000 out of a population of 32 million come to the U.S. to have surgery and tests done because the waits are too long. Where are the best doctors in America going to go and where will we as patients go when government takes over our health care system?"