Study: Obama Healthcare Plan Will Cost Nebraskans

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Updated: 9:14 PM Aug 18, 2009 Study: Obama Healthcare Plan Will Cost Nebraskans Grand Island A new study suggests President Obama's healthcare plan could cost each Nebraskan hundreds of dollars. Posted: 8:31 PM Aug 18, 2009 Reporter: KOLNKGIN Email Address: sara.geake@1011now.com

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The Platte Institute says President Obama's healthcare plan will place an extra burden on Nebraskans.

The Institute's Executive Director John S. McCollister released a report Tuesday at a Grand Island Rotary Club Meetings that reflects the claim.

The Prognosis for National Health Insurance: A Nebraska Perspective is authored by Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics.

"Costs would go up dramatically," said McCollister. "We estimate it's going to be over $375 for every man, woman, and child in Nebraska. It also adds $1 trillion to the debt that we'll have to pay over 10 years, so it's a significant impact."

For more from John McCollister on healthcare reform, click on the video above. To read the study, click on the link below.

Latest Comments

Posted by: Janice Location: Lincoln on Aug 25, 2009 at 04:58 PM

How can anyone propose to trust any government run program, I think we do need health care reform, but this can not be the answer, this country is not prepared for the consequences if it does not pan out,

Posted by: Middle Aged with Kids Location: Grand Island on Aug 24, 2009 at 07:28 AM

This is not nor should it be Rep vs Dem on Health care. This is about: $8/box kleenex at the hospital, $5 asprin and the rest showing run-away prices at the hospitals. $95 Dr. visits that last 5 min. and wait times of 15-75 min.. It is not a question of who gets health care, but how the person shares the cost. This is not a right, just an expectation. There are high taxes on smoking(bad for the health) and alcohol(bad for health) and how these people's health care costs are shared by everyone. People, look around, 1 in 4 smoke, 1 in 3 are overwieght and 1 in 5 are grossly over-weight. These people can't work, are health care time bombs for huge amounts of money and normally contribute nothing back to society that pays for them. Let's place a large tax on Sugar and the fat placed into foods for taste. This would pay for health care, decrease obesity and make people pay more for unhealthy foods. In other words, tax the items that cause the problems and let those people pay for their care.

Posted by: Citizen for choice Location: Lincoln on Aug 20, 2009 at 09:57 PM

There is no doubt some changes are needed aspects in our health care system. Good places to start are allow interstate purchase of insurance to increase competition, pass tort reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits, and give low-income individuals the power to choose insurance through distribution of vouchers. These are reasonable ways to change the system without harming our economy and driving us into a deeper recession while maintaining our freedom to choose. Obama's plan puts more power in our less than trustworthy government and gives more opportunity for government waste and corruption. We don't need more bureaucracy, red-tape and middle men...we need to keep the choices in the hands of the people who the govenment is supposed to serve!

Posted by: MrsMom Location: Nebraska on Aug 20, 2009 at 01:09 PM

Please open and read the PDF file to see what Arduin, Laffer & Moore, a non-profit whose business is the mysterious "Econometrics" really says. Here are a few tidbits: "While health insurance provides valuable financial protection against high costs associated with medical treatment, current benefit designs often blunt consumer sensitivity with respect to prices, quality, and choice of care setting."..."Accordingly, it is necessary to change the adverse incentives on consumers so that they become price-sensitive when purchasing health care – and thus help, by their individual decisions, to contain out-of-control health care costs." READ CLOSELY: "Controlling spending, therefore, requires controlling the spending by the 5 percent of the population spending one-half of all health care expenditures. Predictably, the elderly represent a large portion of the high spenders."..."Reduce the number of mandated benefits that insurers are required to cover." Beware! Repubs want to do this!

Posted by: Scotty Location: Lincoln on Aug 20, 2009 at 08:48 AM

ill keep my health, y'all keep the change. obama is going to be the death of this once great country. only hope i can survive until he's impeached.

Posted by: Kathy B Location: Lincoln on Aug 19, 2009 at 10:16 PM

Mike just look at your last comment. The changes you suggest have absolutely nothing to do with promoting health insurance or care for people now. It has everything to do with maintaining the status quo. Those who have no insurance are a bigger drain on our economy than if they had insurance to cover regular health care screenings and didn't get sick, or have to stop work, and not pay taxes anymore or even get on disability.

Posted by: Mike Honcho Location: Lincoln on Aug 19, 2009 at 03:52 PM

Or maybe, Joe Again, instead of using Obama's costly ideas, the lawmakers could come up with some alternatives that do more to address health care costs, tort reform, and not kowtow to every Democrat demand. You're using the same flawed rationale that many Obama supporters are using...that to oppose Obama's reform is to oppose ALL reform.

Posted by: Another Joe Again Location: Lincoln on Aug 19, 2009 at 02:46 PM

My point is people are going to read the very little this story says and just believe it. They aren't going to go read and research this stuff. They aren't going to conduct their own study. They aren't going to find out exactly who it is coming up with these numbers and what their motivation is. That's why I think the article needed to be a little more in-depth. It's just another way to scare people and incite the rude and ridiculous behavior we've seen at town hall meetings. Thanks Republicans. Let's just keep everything the same until half the country can't afford health insurance.

Posted by: Mike Honcho Location: Lincoln on Aug 19, 2009 at 11:25 AM

I guess if you folks don't like the results, perhaps you should spend the hours researching the proposal, conduct your own study, and publish your own results.

Posted by: Blake Location: Beatrice on Aug 19, 2009 at 10:40 AM

Anyone that thinks this will not cost money is crazy, of course this will be expensive. I think this group is just stating the obvious.

Posted by: Another Joe Location: Lincoln on Aug 19, 2009 at 09:50 AM

What an enlightening news story. Where are the facts? Where are the details? What is the point of this little story?

Posted by: Joe Location: Lincoln on Aug 19, 2009 at 08:27 AM

Is this a right wing think tank or what ? Funding by who ?

Posted by: Eleanor Location: Chadron on Aug 18, 2009 at 10:08 PM

The Platte Institute? The director and president of the Platte Institute is the REPUBLICAN National Committeeman for Nebraska, J. Peter Ricketts, so of COURSE the study is against Obama's Healthcare Plan!

Posted by: June on Aug 18, 2009 at 09:41 PM

What do you expect from this goup. First, the Republicans complain that there aren't enough details to evaluate any of the three current bills (there is no Obama plan---only principles.) Yet this avowed conservative organization can tell you to the dollar what healthcare reform will cost Nebraskans. This is in the same category as the non-existant "death boards" and claim that illegal immigrants will be covered under reformed health care --- lies and misrepresentations. The National Academy of Sciences did a study more than five years ago about the tens of thousands of people in the U.S. who died unnecessarily each year because of the lack of access to health care. Some of those dead were Nebraskans. Would the Platte Institute like to provide a per capita figure on what the state lost when those Nebraskans died?

Posted by: Concerned citizen Location: Lincoln on Aug 18, 2009 at 09:22 PM

Where is the second side of this story? An employee of a GOP Think tank writes a report and someone presents it as fact to a group of Republican Rotarians and that's news? It's not news. It's pandering to one set of viewers who already believed the health care overhaul was a bad plan. It's poor journalism.

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