At the Arcade

They worship me and all I touch
Hazy eyed they catch my glance
Pleasant shudders shake their senses
My warm momentum throws their stance
--The Who

After the Senate's early Xmas Eve morning passage of its health care bill, President Obama served up some glad tidings in a press conference (click the video link here). Those who accept the claims made here are not engaging their brains.

The president clearly paints the insurance industry as primary bad guys here. To the extent that industry participants do actually possess pricing power, much of it comes from regulation. For example, current regs prohibit interstate competition.

If we focus on the 'problem' of rising health care costs, then there are other factors contributing at least as equally, including out of control malpractice process, presence of federal programs and subsidies (currently at ~45% of US health care expenditures, and a design that favors a 3rd party payment system--which removes consumer motivation to shop for value.

The bill on the table does nothing but elevate these factors to a higher level of relevance.

I found it amusing that the president equates this bill with the most significant piece of 'social legislation' since Social Security in the 1930s and Medicaid in the 1960s. Those two programs, of course, have generated a pile of $30+ trillion of unfunded liabilities--and growing.

Near the end of his remarks, the president offers that this bill, should it be voted into law, will prevent us from 'dooming' future generations from rising health costs, reduced health coverage, and exploding deficits.

Yet, only fools would not conclude that it is precisely this future, one of squalor, that is the odds on favorite should this bill come to pass.