Economics of the Proposed Health Care Bill

A single payer, government-run, reimbursement system would be a reenactment of Medicare for all Americans. It would drive all the private insurance companies out of business because it would be able to sell insurance using the mandate-creating tool of collective bargaining where the government would be the only bidder—that is not something that would increase competition, as the President has said he wants. Furthermore, it would increase total costs as the Congressional Budget Office predicts. This would happen because if the government is supplying free or low-cost health care services, everyone will want some of it; and utilization will necessarily increase. (The CBO estimates that H.R. 3200 would cause a net increase in the federal budget deficit of $239 billion during the 10 year period of 2010-2019.)