Want a sneak preview of how Washington-run health care likely will oper ate?
Look no further than your local car lot.
Washington’s $1 billion “Cash for Clunkers” program has created great demand — but that was to be expected of a government giveaway.
In fact, so many people have lined up to take advantage of it — they’ll get up to $4,500 for trading in an old car for a fuel-efficient model — that Washington is actually suspending it.
It seems that demand for new cars is exceeding the “Cash for Clunker” program’s $1 billion appropriation.
But here’s another problem: The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that at a meeting this week of 150 Minnesota auto dealers, not one has gotten a single transaction approved by Washington.
“We asked how many had a deal approved yet, and not one hand went up,” said Scott Lambert, vice president of the Minnesota Auto Dealers Association — adding that the program is “so big and cumbersome that it can’t find a way to accept anything.”
That’s left the dealers on the hook for somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 completed deals — at a cost to them of up to $9 million — while they wait for the feds to plow through all the red tape.
That’s money the dealers already have paid to their customers on the presumption that the deals will be approved.
Many dealers have agreed that any customer whose purchase is rejected can return the car and void the contract.
Alas, doctors can’t make the same promise when it comes to a gallbladder.
And what happens when Washington runs out of health-care dollars?
Suspend ObamaCare?