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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (78200)	3/9/2010 5:03:14 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Obamacare pays the price for lack of cost controls By: Chris Stirewalt Political Editor 03/09/10 7:50 AM EST Washington Post -- Obama launches attack on health insurance companies A deadly consensus being reached about Obamacare is that it does not control costs but does seek to regulate prices. Under the president’s plan, the cost of health care would go up at an even faster rate than it currently is – more users for the same resources and more bureaucracy. That’s why we’ve seen forecasts from economists of even higher insurance premiums than the current trend would deliver if the president’s package becomes law. It’s become the most popular complaint among fence-sitting House Democrats and one that might sink the listing legislative hulk. The White House solution is to regulate the prices insurance companies charge. It would be like requiring coffee shops to buy only exotic Sumatran coffee beans but then restricting the price they could charge for a cup of joe. Starbucks might have some breathing room in the profits on a latte, but Dunkin Donuts couldn’t afford to keep selling coffee with its crullers. Writers Amy Goldstein and Scott Wilson look at Obama’s new insurance-bashing stump speech and the new pressures from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the industry. On the stump, Obama is looking for a bigger villain than the federal government – saying that “we allow the insurance industry to run wild in this country.” And beyond the legal profession and the media it would be hard to find another industry as loathed by the American electorate. But as Goldstein and Wilson tell us, that doesn’t mean voters are going to warm to the idea of dropping the regulatory hammer on insurers. Most people are relatively satisfied with their policies and the greatest fears are rising premiums and more expensive care. The president would exacerbate the latter and try to solve the former through price controls. His current pitch may actually make his plan more unpopular than it is. Also, the insurance industry, which helped draft the original Obama plan, will now briefing against it. “America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's main lobby, plans to spend more than $1 million on a nationwide advertising campaign this week to, as one official with the group said, ‘set the record straight about rising health-care costs.’” Read more at the Washington Examiner: washingtonexaminer.com