that the Democrats have known this all along and only care insofar as it makes passing their takeover more difficult because some people still care about the federal debt and deficit.
The Democrats know it will raise costs but were hoping for that fact to remain hidden until their socialization of our health care system was fait accompli.
Don’t expect this to have any effect except to compel the Dems to come up with another scam bill to hide the costs similar to the ‘doctor fix’ from a few weeks ago.

before the state passed the mandatory car insurance deal it was widely touted as “everyone will have to buy it so costs will go down etc as there would be more competition between insurance companies to get the uninsured etc”.

I didn’t buy the argument then and insurance rates only went up because *every vehicle* needed covered…

Simple Supply and Demand.

When demand goes up - prices go up. When you force a captive audience to *have to buy* something there is no way in hell prices are going down…

It would be helpful if the average congresscritter could grasp this simple factual concept…

“this is not healthcare reform, this is entitlement expansion”

Well said!

“By 2014, Medicare Advantage enrollment would drop 64 percent from 13.2 million to 4.7 million because of less generous benefit packages.”

Pelosi’s 2,000 page monstrosity is shovel-ready.

An opinion piece on the WSJ points out another sliver of the loss of freedom this fight represents: The Rationing Commission.

As we know, American citizens become federal-budget line items:

As envisioned by the Senate Finance Committee, the commission—all 15 members appointed by the President—would have to meet certain budget targets each year. Starting in 2015, Medicare could not grow more rapidly on a per capita basis than by a measure of inflation. After 2019, it could only grow at the same rate as GDP, plus one percentage point.

The theory is to let technocrats set Medicare payments free from political pressure, as with the military base closing commissions. But that process presented recommendations to Congress for an up-or-down vote. Here, the commission’s decisions would go into effect automatically if Congress couldn’t agree within six months on different cuts that met the same target. The board’s decisions would not be subject to ordinary notice-and-comment rule-making, or even judicial review.

The closing statement is spot-on:

The only way to take the politics out of health care is to give individuals more power to control medical dollars. And the first step should be not to create even more government spending commitments. The core problem with government-run health care is that it doesn’t make decisions in the best interests of patients, but in the best interests of government.

So…increased cost, reduced service, unaccountable technocrats, jail-time for non-payment, etc….abortion is a key argument against this pig..but this is about so much more than that.