Perpetual Motion

I went to Rep. Keith Ellison's health care forum last weekend.  He passed out a flyer that claims that the legislation being pushed by the Democrats in Congress will lower costs, offer greater choice, higher quality, and guarantee coverage for everyone.

Now, I'm not very smart, so this confuses me.  It seems to me that if you force someone to provide something, someone has to pay for it.  The flyer claims that this legislation will  "lower costs".  There will be no more "co-pays or deductibles for preventive care", and a cap on out-of-pocket expenses.  It then goes on to describe all the great new benefits, like "Guaranteed, affordable oral, hearing, and vision care for your kids."

Cool.  I like free stuff.  The trouble is that the next item is "Greater Choice: Keep your doctor, and your current plan, if you like them".

Now I'm really confused.  If the government forces my insurance company to pay for things it does not currently offer, I figure that it will cost them money, and besides, if my insurance is forced to add coverage, it's not the same plan any more is it?  I figure that they will either have to raise my rates, or cut something else that they offer to make up the cost.  Maybe the stockholders will take it out of their profits, but that seems unlikely, because investors only invest for the profit. If they have to give up their profits, they will likely just close up shop.  For that matter, I have some stock in my retirement fund.  I sure wouldn't buy stock that doesn't offer a return.  (I have to take care of my retirement!  Social Security isn't enough, that's for sure.)

It gets better, though. There will be a "public option" to keep my greedy insurance company honest, and I retain my right to make all health care decisions.  It's true.  It says so in the flyer.  Even better, the insurance company can't deny me coverage.  The investors are forced to pay my costs on all this cool new stuff in addition to what they pay now, and can't even say no.  The insurance company will also no longer be able to put an upper limit on its liabilities.

I like this a lot.  I get lots of free stuff, at no cost.  I get to keep my plan, which I liked before, but with all these changes, I'm sure to like it even more.  This is great.

I am still confused, though.  I don't understand how the insurance company pays for all this.  They must be really rich and have lots of extra money.

Then it hit me.  President Obama is not a normal politician.  He is really smart, and has figured out how to how to transcend economic laws.  Yes we Can!

I think the next thing Mr. Obama should work on is a perpetual motion machine, or maybe cure cancer.  That will be easy, now that he has conquered economics.

I think I'll sell the health care stock in my retirement fund, though.