Clunker Health Care Reform

Posted July 31st, 2009 at 11.38am in Health Care.

The $1 billion “Cash for Clunkers” auto bailout Congress passed last June has run out of cash after one week. The House of Representatives is already readying a bill to pump another $2 billion into the program, setting a new land speed record for expanding foolish programs.

There are so many valuable lessons to be drawn from this sorry episode it’s hard to know where to begin. But the most important is the clear warning it sends for health care reform.

The Cash for Clunkers program is pretty simple. The government pays buyers up to $4,500 to trade in an old car to buy a new, more fuel-efficient car. There was never any doubt it would work in the sense that people with old cars would take the cash. If you pay college kids to drink beer, you’re likely to be successful increasing beer sales. The issue in both cases would be whether the program was wise. The answer in both cases is pretty obvious.

But this was a simple program, and Congress botched it twice over, once by thinking it was a good idea and again by underestimating the demand and hence the cost. Congress is now debating a radical, government-driven restructuring of about a sixth of the economy, perhaps the most complex, most personal part of our economy – the health care system. Want to know the outcome if Congress were to send the President the legislation he wants? Look to the Cash for Clunkers program for a clue and multiply many times over.

We definitely need health care reform for all the reasons the President so eloquently and repeatedly reminds us. But as Stuart Butler explained, we need to start with those incremental reforms we understand fully and on which there is broad agreement, moving forward with further reforms in coming years as we learn more about what works and what’s a clunker.

Author: J.D. Foster
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11 Comments

July 31, 2009 » Financial News Update - 07/31/09 NoisyRoom.net: Where liberty dwells, there is my country… writes:

[...] Clunker Health Care Reform [...]

July 31, 2009 jim brocato, IL writes:

By the way, our government is allowing the $4500 to be used for foreign made cars. That’s right we pumped millions into sales for foreign made cars and companies that are not having problems. Like nissan, honda, and toyota. What the F were they thinking.

July 31, 2009 Ken McAlister - Texas writes:

Just how many cars can be sold in a week, in our present economy? If then maximum was paid for each clunker, that would be over 200,000 vehicles sold in a week. I wonder whose hand we are going to hear about being cought in the till!? I would be interested to find a statistic that tells us how many cars were bought in a week.

July 31, 2009 JULIO KLEIN writes:

HEALTH CARE OR EUTHANASIA FOR OLD PEOPLE ?

SEE ( ALINSKY RULES FOR RADICALS),THIS WILL ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LEADER

August 1, 2009 Coonsey’s World writes:

[...] GOP are trying to make hay over the problems with the Cash for Clunkers program. Claiming that it’s a prime example of how ‘government’ handles things, imagine what they [...]

August 1, 2009 DON WOJTASZEK- LOUISVILLE,KY. writes:

The cash for clunkers idea in its’ self was a an idea that may have brought a greater return if the people could afford to buy the cars “they wanted”. Not cars the government said the plan would cover. In the first place, any fool would’ve known what they had allocated for funds wasn’t going to be enough! They play stupid when things go haywire and thier plans are a flop.Besides they never had money to pay for it anyway.Just print somemore we’re broke now what does it matter.

August 1, 2009 jim sardis,ms. writes:

if they has sent everyone a check for $4500 instead of giving it to the UAW,it would have stimulated the economy instead of the unions.

August 2, 2009 S. Sothern - Niagara, WI writes:

Call or write your congressman and ask hom if he and his fanily will give up their excellent private health insurance for a government run healthcare plan that they want to force down our throats.

Congress and the president all have their choice of private health insurance plans, and they won’t be forced to give them up. If the government run plan isn’t right for them I want to know why they want to force it on others by gradually putting private health insurance companies out of business,so we won’t have that choice.

August 3, 2009 Daver Ft. Worth writes:

It’s ironic that the cash for clunkers and Obamacare plans as so similar and obviously flawed, yet the left continues to push forward oblivious to reality or alternate methods of accomplishing the stated “desired” results.

(Unless of course you admit that increased availability and affordability are not the real goals of medical reform–ready for that truth yet? I didn’t think so.)

1) So the program is going to cost at least 3 times, the estimated cost.
2) Dealers and private individuals are having a hard time complying.
3) When resources run short–rules were changed to accomodate governmental desires. (Older car stated mileage limits have been tweaked.)
4) These programs will harm more people than they will help. (More people who couldn’t afford new cars are now saddled with monthly payments.) 86 million people who have private insurance will be forced into a gov’t program which many believe will not be as favorable to them as what they currently have. (all to add 15 million people.)

Sad–just sad, that an honest debate on what’s in this program can’t be provided so everyone can vote on what’s really being proposed. But honesty is not the hallmark of anything this administration is pushing.

August 5, 2009 AntiObamaBlog.com » Taxes for Clunkers: Worst Governmet Program Ever? writes:

[...] Clunker Health Care Reform [...]

August 5, 2009 J. Terrell, Borden, IN writes:

Cash for Clunkers was a bad idea from the start. In the first place, the government has no funds to support it, secondly, it puts people in debt that has no funds to pay for a new car, and finally, people with cars that get low mileage, well, their vehicle gets them back and forth to where they want to be. Now what is wrong with that? If you are poor, you can’t do anything about the ecology in that respect, when you are just trying to eke out a living.
As for the government, they get these ideas, and they add them as Bills, but they always add hidden things in these bills, so also, who knows what is in the Health Reform Bill. It surely not a good Bill, because the Congress are too good for it, they have their own private insurance. They work for us, but you wouldn’t think so, now would you?

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