*Affordability* and Campaign 2026

The political left thinks the answers to all of their political prayers this year is the issue of *affordability.* Stuff is too expensive.

*Affordable* is a relative term.  It depends on whose POV is being used.  I have a friend whose hobby is collecting Italian sports cars — specifically, Ferraris and Lamborghinis.  THAT is an affordable hobby for HIM.  But NOT for me. 

Leftists are not really interested in saving us a little money.  *Affordability* is yet another vehicle to gin up the whole class-envy thing.

Nothing is for free.  You may get something at no — or little – cost.  But there is someone down the line forking out – or forking out more — to pay for the *discount* you are getting.

One of the best ways to jack up the cost of a product or process is to add a bureaucrat or a lawyer or a politician into the equation.

What’s being talked about in Washington right now involves extending government subsidies for ObamaCare. Keeping ObamaCare “affordable”, of course. 

A friend in the insurance business had this observation about O-care:

“For folks who are really sick and not making much money, it’s a god-send.  Folks who are relatively healthy and making a decent income?  They’re getting screwed.”

Health care is the number one issue where the whole *affordability* theme gets batted about.  I have a friend – a health care provider – who tells me he has to employ three office workers just to comply with all kinds of government red-tape.  These people rarely have contact with patients.  Their complete job description involves pushing paper and pleasing the bureaucracy. Paying for those three people obviously adds to the cost of being a customer at my friend’s business.

North Carolina bureaucrats and politicians do all kinds of things to cater to the deep-pockets of the hospital industry lobbyists.  We have a Certificate of Need (CON) system in place in our state.  The CON is defended as a device for cutting down redundancy of services in certain areas and thereby controlling costs.  It’s arguably protecting monopolies for BIG health care providers. 

As we all know, competition is the best way to control costs.  But the CON system puts all the advantages with deep-pocketed large hospital systems.  A hospital chain with – say – MRI services has a state-run vehicle to determine whether anyone else with MRI capabilities can move in and set up shop in the hospital chain’s market area.  Another provider with MRI services can likely drive down the cost of an MRI in that area.  But a CON system – way too friendly to big hospitals – will never let us see that happen. 

The hospital cartel also used their deep pockets to stop efforts by then-state treasurer Dale Folwell to gain transparency on the fees charged to customers of the state health plan.  As you know – if you’ve  ever been a guest at a hospital – you don’t know the total cost until months and months after you go home. Wouldn’t it to be nice to know that the procedure you’re seeking is significantly cheaper at the hospital one county over?  Thanks to our very pliable legislators, you won’t ever get to hospital-shop. 

Making something more affordable can be accomplished in many ways other than government subsidies. Look for ways to extract oppressive regulations and introduce competition FIRST.

Gouging one party to pay for services for another party is no way to run an economy.  Offering deep discounts or services at-no-cost are not as clean as politicians want you to believe.  There is always someone down the line who is getting it stuck to them hard.

Most people and / or businesses are not going to just quietly and calmly eat a loss or steep price increase.  They’re going to look for an another way to recover that money.  Governmental tinkering to make things *affordable* simply extends a vicious circle of gouging.  Robbing Paul to pay Peter.   Over and over again.