THE GOVERNMENT OPTION FAILS 

Yesterday was a minor victory for the Republicans, or anyone who is not all that anxious to see the government takeover of 18% of our economy. In the Senate Finance Committee, two amendments were defeated that would have created a government-run option to be included in the Baucus healthcare bill. Baucus himself, who is more concerned about his ego and the chance to be a hero, voted against the amendments knowing that they will ultimately doom his bill in the full Senate. A few other Democrats joined him in voting against the amendments - which were offered by Senator Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer - and they voted to reject them.

As you can imagine, Schumer and Rockefeller are less than pleased. They insist that a government option is the best way to control the rising costs of healthcare, which is otherwise at the mercy of "voracious, profit-driven private insurance companies." Unfortunately for them, that turns out to be flat-out untrue. Do you remember a few weeks ago when I told you about the "Massachusetts Model"? You see, the state of Massachusetts has a health insurance mandate, similar to what the Democrats want to set up on a national level. But it turns out that all of this government regulation did nothing to drive down costs. In fact, it made them worse. Here are a few facts to keep in mind:

Employer-based health insurance for a family of four in Massachusetts costs an average of $16,897, the average national cost is $12,700. Individual policies available in other states and underwritten by nationally known companies are not available in Massachusetts because excess regulation has destroyed the market for private health insurance.
 (http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10268)
 

Thanks to all of the regulation, Insurance premiums in Massachusetts rose by 7.4% in 2007, 8 to 12% in 2008 and are expected to rise by 9% in 2009. In 2007, private health insurance premiums for the rest of the US grew by only 6.0 percent.
 (http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10268).

There's more where that came from. So it is easy to understand that Chuckie Schumer and Jay Rockefeller do not care about your healthcare costs.