Barry, Nancy, Harry and the Giant Peach
In Roald Dahl's wonderful children's book, James and the Giant Peach, the little boy James and some over-sized garden creatures trick thousands of seagulls into carrying a hollow, house-sized peach out of the ocean and up into the air to escape the sharks that begin to devour it. The seagulls are tied to the peach by silk strings made by the over-sized silkworm.
This impossibly improbable scenario is like government-run medical care.
The largest, current government-run medical care system is Medicare.
Today, the New York Times is reporting that Medicare premiums are scheduled to increase 15 percent for next year.
The chief argument put forth by President Obama to support the Democrat's health care reform proposals is to stem the rapid increase in cost for health care and health insurance. Yet, the government's own health care program has a scheduled increase in premiums that is almost double of the estimated increases for private health insurance premiums for 2010.
What is the government's response to the Medicare Administration's premium increase? Pass a new law to stop it. The Medicare Premium Fairness Act, HR 3631, was passed by the House on Sep. 24, 2009, by a 406-18 vote. The $2.8 billion bill will be paid for by sloshing around money in the Medicare system.
Is this what is going to happen to our health care system once it is fully socialized? The administrators will increase rates by 15 percent and then Congress will pass a law to stop it?
Were these type of Congressional shenanigans factored into the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of Medicare legislation when originally proposed? Probably not. Should we believe the CBO's analyses of each of the current bills being put forth by Congress? Probably not.
So, what we have here is the Giant Peach of Government Run Health Insurance held up by millions of silk strings pulled by millions of tired seagulls. Not a good system.
At the end of James and the Giant Peach, a plane flew into the thousands of silk strings cutting them. The peach fell out of the sky and got impaled by the Empire State Building.
Medicare too will soon come crashing down to earth, and get impaled by the financial collapse of an improbable design.
Senators, Congressmen, if you're listening to the American people - don't build a Giant Peach of a Socialized Medicine system - we really don't like getting impaled.