Thursday, February 25, 2010

Obama's Bad Trip Back to the 1970's

by Simon Constable

Just when you thought policy-making couldn't get more bizarre...the President wants to revisit a disastrous economic idea that failed when it was tried in the 1970s.

Specifically, price controls are back on the table, this time in the health-care debate.
That's bad news for anyone wanting an efficient running economy and real reform in the health-care sector.

(In order to evoke the appropriate mood of the dodgy decade, this column is best read listening to Disco Inferno by The Trammps. Think, "Burn Baby Burn" Watch the video. )

Tucked inside the latest version of ObamaCare, which was announced Monday, is a provision to introduce a "Health Insurance Rate Authority."

That entity would determine whether health-insurance companies are charging too much for coverage. If so, the "Authority" could mandate that prices be capped. In effect, the proposal could mean price controls at the discretion of a quasi-government entity.

The last time the U.S. gave the government broad powers to cap prices was in the 1970s.
Lest anyone forget, that was an economic mess.

Read the rest here.

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