PrintGovernment drives costs up
If anyone wants to get a concrete real world example of how absurd the "the government will bring health care costs down" argument is, go no further than higher education. According to the Digest of Education Statistics 2008 the cost of a four year school has gone up more than 330% in 20 years. That type of price increase makes health care cost increases with a ballooning aging population and longer life expectancies look sane and modest in comparison. What caused such a huge increase?
The government has steadily pumped more and more money into higher education with predictable results. As more "easy" money is poured into the system, the prices have gone up to what the market will bear. Think of education like the housing market was a few years ago. As more "easy money" was poured into the housing market the cost of homes increased drastically.
Today the government either guarantees or issues 80% of all student loans according to the Wall Street Journal. It didn't start out that way, but who would oppose helping poor students get an education? Now that the government is so immersed in the market it's time to get rid of the competition in the 100 billion dollar a year industry. First the Obama administration wants to eliminate private loans that are guaranteed by the government -- which make up 50 percent of all student loans. It also wants to add new restrictions to the 20 percent of totally private student loans that don't cost the taxpayer a dime. In addition to those changes, the Obama administration announced earlier this year that they were starting another entitlement for higher education loans which will compete directly with banks.
