The first step to socialized medicine

Today Barack Obama signed the expanded SCHIP bill into law. I thought he was ushering in a new era of responsibility.  He must have meant he was ushering in a new era of shifting responsibility from parents to government because that is what is going to happen as a result of this bill. More and more parents who have been taking care of their kids’ health care costs will shift that responsibility to the government and by extension the US taxpayers. Families living at up to 4 times the poverty rate are applicable to enter their kids into the government program. And President Obama made it clear this is only the beginning of herding everyone into government run health care:

The way I see it, providing coverage to 11 million children … is a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American.

Rep. Steve King explained in clear terms why this expansion is a bad idea:

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

Update: The editorial at today’s Pittsburgh Tribune explains that this bill’s passage is pure malpractice:

The new bill includes kids in families of four earning up to $80,000 per year. But the Congressional Budget Office reports that 77 percent of such children already have private health insurance, according to Michael F. Cannon, director of health-policy studies at the Cato Institute, a free-market think tank.

And there is no empirical evidence that this Nanny State Band-Aid and similar programs are cost-effective ways of improving children’s health, say economists Helen Levy and David Meltzer.

Expanding SCHIP could make a bad situation worse by discouraging work. The Urban Institute offers an eye-opening example of the Law of Unintended Consequences:

“A single mother of two earning minimum wage in New Mexico who increased her earnings by $30,000 would find no change in her net income: She would pay an additional $4,000 in taxes and lose $26,000 in SCHIP and other government benefits,” the institute concludes.

On top of that, this bill cost $115 billion, when the bill that failed in 2007 cost $35 billion. We’re in a recession and this Democratic congress and Democratic president are spending money as if it grows on trees. They’re like adolescents who have just gained access to their trust funds. It’s shocking incompetence.