I wrote on Wednesday:
People like to bitch about their health care providers and insurers. Under Obambicare, that will be Obambi.
Rich Lowry takes a more programmatic view:
One point I make in my column today is that Obama is going to have a stimulus problem on health-care, if it passes. He has vastly over-promised, and his claims will fairly rapidly be discredited. Premiums and costs won’t go down. Even the number of the uninsured won’t go down soon. This is one of the reasons it’s so foolhardy for Democrats to think the debate is going to get better for them after the bill passes. Because they’ve talked about how historic their legislation is, they will own the health care system and every discontent with it will be pinned on them. John Boehner has asked, “Where are the jobs?” since the stimulus passed. He’ll be able to do exactly the same thing here, asking, “Where are the premium and cost reductions?” The difference is that eventually the jobs will come back, whereas the magical reductions in premiums and costs are unlikely ever to materialize (in fact, the bill will send them in the opposite direction). That’s why I’m betting the bill will get less rather than more popular after passage (like the stimulus) and within six-to-twelve months liberal pundits will be explaining that people would really love the law if only it were even more sweeping and expensive (like they have with the stimulus).
