“Free” – just ignore those strings attached

Presume for a minute that you are below the food stamp/welfare threshhold. The government is offering you ‘free’ healthcare – someone else pays so you can see the doctor! UPDATE: Hot Air – a guy thinks it’s just like Christmas (does someone else buy gifts for his family then too?)

Based on this ’09 economics post from the NY Times, the result would extrapolate to be

• 1) New service utilization by 30m additional individuals
• 2) based on the usage results of  employer-driven healthcare plans where  over the decades since WWII employees became disconnected from the cost of a service (and demanded more because – what the heck – it’s ‘free’), we could anticipate demand for repeat services to increase. If you’re not payin’, I’m only sayin’….
• 3) Cost curve does not bend down
• 4) Call to begin limiting overall costs

If you prefer a different explanation than what the NYT economists provide – try Pajamas Media instead. UPDATE: Or perhaps Pirates Cove?

The press and blogs have gone ad nauseum over who wins and who loses as a result of Step #4 above. We have heard everything from “Waxman hopes for more abortions so there are fewer people to insure” to “death panels for older easily-dispensed-of-people like they had during pre-WWII Germany will be implemented”

I actually believe the progressives will start with the easiest, knee-jerk response they know: Policy “encourages” (enforces) desired behavior modifications. UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg refers to this in his “Culture wars for as far as the eye can see” post today on NRO

The NY City councilman limiting salt is an example of the use of policy to enforce desired behavior.

So, if you are one of the new 30m to-be-insured – expect the following

• – Want to get “free” healthcare? Quit smoking
• – Want to get “Free” healthcare? Quit drinking
• – Want to get “free” healthcare? Get your BMI under 25
• – Want to get “free” healthcare? Get HDL/LDL limits in bounds

Don’t follow the behavior modifications as prescribed? Your ‘free’ healthcare isn’t so ‘free’ in terms of actual $$ anymore.

Forget the freedom to exercise the behavior you choose – you already gave that up.

And unfortunately (or- if you’re one of the overlords, fortunately) – the results will be to hit the poor up 3x coming and going in this “free to them” benefit – while taxing them and us for the services they receive in the name of enforcing encouraging the desired behavior

Study of smoking among the poor reveals striking findings: In some of Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods, nearly half of all adults are addicted to cigarettes, despite the fact that prices are nearing $9 a pack while many household incomes are below $15,000.

In Britain studies imply a correlation between poverty and obesity

But hey, the National Institute of Health took a goal to get adult obesity within 15% of the population (in 2005 it was 30%), and the trends in 2008 were going the wrong way…

See if this posting from usgovinfo gives you any hints on the correlation between the bill and the behavior modification.