Health-care bill: Trick or treat?

If Democrats think that by passing health-care legislation they have put the matter to bed, they should think again.

The effects of the legislation will unfold with weekly or even daily surprises that will be in the news for a long time to come. Republicans are already leaning toward a “repeal and replace” campaign theme this year and state governments are already putting up stiff resistance on their own.

As President Barack Obama signed the bill into law last week, 12 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit to block the law on grounds that its mandate requiring people to have health insurance is unconstitutional. About 14 states are also suing because of the financial burden the bill imposes by making 15 million more Americans eligible for state-run Medicaid programs.

Despite Democratic claims that the bill will somehow save the government money and also make for more affordable health insurance, one does not have to be an economist to understand that Congress has just created an entitlement program that will lead to a vastly expanded and expensive government apparatus that will be paid for through a variety of job-killing taxes.

And businesses are reacting to it. The Wall Street Journal reports that Caterpillar Inc. projects the legislation will cost the company $100 million in the first year alone. A company called Medtronic is warning that a tax on medical devices could force layoffs for 1,000 employees. Verizon is warning its employees about adverse effects to their health benefits as a direct result of the bill. Obviously, companies across the country are making similar calculations.

Unbelievably, Democrats forced the legislation through during the worst recession in decades, when millions of Americans are already unemployed. And it was entirely predictable that Obamacare would have a crippling, constrictive effect on business and investment.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., had a truthful and revealing statement about the legislation after it was passed: “The harsh fact of the matter is when you’re going to pass legislation that will cover 300 million American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.”

He’s right that it is a harsh fact that such legislation will affect 300 million Americans in different, inequitable ways. And he’s right that it will take time to implement — with a vast bureaucracy that we’re only now getting a glimpse of. And it’s highly revealing that the purpose of the bureaucracy is “to control the people.”

While the Department of Health and Human Services will be the overlord for health care “reform,” the enforcer will be the Internal Revenue Service. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the IRS will need $10 billion to pay for 16,500 agents and other personnel to enforce the bill’s new mandates.

All of this is just a sampling of what’s contained in a law that is more than 2,000 pages long and guaranteed to offer plenty more in the way of unpleasant surprises.