i've been waiting for somebody to bring this up

.
but i didn't figure it would come from the insurance lobby, because i thought they were bought and paid for. whatever--it's in the public dialogue now, where it needs to be.

have any of you--especially you under-30 types--stopped to think about exactly how obama and congress plan to pay for their universal healthcare utopia--you know, cover everybody, cover pre-existing conditions, pave the streets in gold and all that shit?

they've been saying they were gonna do it by cutting costs and creating greater efficiencies, but as i've pointed out before, that's bullshit--they haven't even come close to addressing the real reasons why healthcare is so expensive in this country.

no, they had another plan--instead of rocking the special-interest boat by actually trying to fix things, they decided it'd be easier just to increase the revenue pool; i.e., force everybody to buy healthcare insurance whether they wanted it or not, and levy substantial fines on anyone who didn't fall into line.

see, they figured, there's this huge pool of young, healthy, largely-uninsured americans out there who they could suck into the system, and use the premiums they extorted outta them for insurance they'll never use to pay for the costs of caring for the old and sick. from each according to their ability, to each according to their need--see how that works?

under this proposed plan, the doctors and hospitals were happy because they'd get to continue playing their same ol' games, the lawyers were happy because the idea of tort reform never even entered into the discussion, and the insurance lobby was happy because it was offered up all these new customers to gouge and screw.

the only people who might not be happy are the millions of young americans out there who--as if struggling to find work, save a little money and pay off their student loans weren't enough in this horrible economy--would suddenly find themselves on the hook for thousands of dollars in health insurance premiums each and every year, courtesy of the man most of 'em voted into office in the naive belief he was gonna make their lives better.

as the potential fallout became clear even to the clueless democrats, max baucus introduced his own version of the healthcare bill, which, among other things, relaxed the requirements on the uninsured to carry coverage only for catastrophic events like accidents or cancer. seems reasonable, right?

well, you'da thought he'd stuck a flaming poker into the eye of the insurance industry, the way they reacted. the conclusions they reached? get ready, because this is deep:

"Several major provisions in the current legislative proposal [i.e., relaxing insurance requirements for millions of uninsured] will cause healthcare costs to increase far faster and higher than they would under the current system," Karen Ignagni, the top industry lobbyist in Washington, wrote in a memo to insurance company chief executives.

well, no shit--you're promising carte blanche coverage to everybody who's old and sick without bringing in young, healthy suckers at the bottom of the pyramid to pay for it all, so whaddya think's gonna happen? thanks for that expert analysis of the obvious, insurance folks.

of course, the white house and senate are shrill in their denouncement of this blindside attack, claiming it has absolutely no merit. and the rhetorical game goes on . . .

it's time to stop this nonsense. far as i'm concerned, it is incumbent upon this congress and this president to prove to the american people that they can undertake and achieve real healthcare reform--i.e., attack and defeat the special-interest sacred cows of medicine, law and insurance--before they suck us all into some ill-conceived nationalized healthcare plan from which there is no return.