If members of Congress slow down long enough to read the detailed reports of their own Congressional Budget Office (CBO) -- or even its director's recent Senate testimony -- they will understand that many of the slogans they use to justify government intervention are false.
Health care certainly plays a major role in the U.S. economy, and by almost any objective account a highly positive role. It employs 13 million Americans and accounts for one out of 10 jobs. But the assertion that the costs of providing health insurance cripples American corporations in the global economy is simply wrong.
CBO director Douglas W. Elmendorf explained this last week to the Senate Committee on Finance... The point is that for employers, health care is merely a part of total compensation: It reduces cash compensation for employees but it does not increase costs of employment.
A recent CBO report ("Key Issues in Analyzing Major Health Insurance Proposals, " December 2008) is clear on one issue: Working to achieve universal coverage through expanding government's role in health care will increase total costs and therefore either increase premiums or taxes, not reduce them.
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