Senate Promises that Healthcare Bill Will Reduce Costs, Particlularly for the Deceased

Written by Gus Slowman, Dissociated Press

While Republicans and other naysayers who want to protect insurance companies and profiteers have been insisting that the Senate's Healthcare Bill will increase the aggregate cost of healthcare in America, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has insisted that costs will be reduced, if not immediately, then gradually on all, especially for those who die between now and then.

"This bill in no way will increase costs on the American people," Durbin said. "There will be a net savings from the reduced cost of providing health care to millions of people once profiteering is removed from the system, and that savings will be passed on to provide for children diagnosed with pre-existing conditions and free check-ups for seniors. Although fees may be increased temporarily for many Americans, the deceased will be unaffected by this increase."

Government figures indicate that the number of people who will die, and therefore will no longer need healthcare, between the time of the passage of the bill and a net savings is realized, could be as high as 4 million, depending on the number of lives that are saved or created during that time.

Republicans argue that the number of lives "saved or created" is vague and artificial, because no one can measure how many lives will be saved under a new, European-style, government-run healthcare system ruled by compassion rather than profit, and the number created (born) may fluctuate if the bill passes.

Once it is inevitably passed, the bill would have to be merged with a House version before President Obama, the first African-American president who inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, could sign it into law.