3.15.2010

A Few Reality Checks...

Greetings puny Earthlings.

Sorry we've been away for a while. Xran got married (again) and the bachelor party ended with us waking up in Vegas with a wicked hangover, a missing groom, and some legal situations that took time to hush up. So we're back with a new reality check for you to cash:

HEALTH CARE REFORM: The Democrats seem obsessed with digging up every sob story about every person who ever got screwed over by an insurance company, or driven into debt by medical bills as some sort of proof that the free market has failed in the field of health care.

Except there's one problem with that little assertion:

THERE NEVER HAS BEEN A FREE MARKET IN AMERICAN HEALTH CARE

The system is regulated so that each state has specific regulations for who can operate in their state, and how they can operate. The insurance companies love this because it ensures that they can create networks of mini-monopolies, set prices at whim, and never have to worry about any real competition, because the government will actively use these regulations to block it for them.

Despite what Obama and his minions say, the opposition is not backed by some sinister insurance company cabal. The insurance companies actually support Obamacare because it protects their monopolies, gives them access to trillions in government subsidies, and has enough loopholes nestled deep within its 2000+ pages to make sure they don't have to change a damn thing about how they operate, or treat their customers.

What the insurance companies are scared of is what those pesky Tea Partiers want. I'm talking about being able to buy insurance across state lines, younger people foregoing everyday health insurance in favour of cheaper catastrophic health insurance, or the insurance companies being forced to actually compete for customers and their business.

But all Obama can do is trot out the story of the person going around with their dead sibling's dentures, because he knows, that arguing on the true merits of his seizure of 1/6 of the USA economy is a tactical blunder. There are no merits to this plan, just a lot of empty promises, and increasing debt.

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