Which is my real beef with this bill: It does NOTHING to mitigate that unless one thinks the state by state insurance exchanges will do more than replace many monopolies with collusion. The modification to the just passed bill scheduled for a Senate vote this week (through budget reconciliation, which is to say, unable to be filibustered) introduces federal regulation of rate hikes, but that afterthought is the only thing aimed at high costs still rising at an alarming annual rate. 300 million Americans will still be legally required to BUY insurance, however; the subsidies will (theoretically) make that possible for families earning <$88,000/year, at a taxpayer cost of $900 billion, but that simply means the insurance industry is GUARANTEED $900 billion in revenue PLUS whatever it costs those without insurance but ineligible for subsidies. Guaranteeing a ravenous private industry well over a trillion dollars won't motivate them to reduce costs or slow their growth much. This bill doesn't "give" anyone health insurance, it MAKES them purchase it, regardless of cost. No one can be denied insurance outright, but they can be priced out of the market--except they no longer have the option of simply not buying overpriced insurance.

That's the irony of Obamacare: The very people most critical of it (the insurance lobby) will benefit the most, and its most vocal supporters (supposed far left liberals) get the exact opposite of what they say they want. It's not universal healthcare or socialized medicine, it's corporate welfare for the last industry on Earth that needs it. But Obama and the Dems can go to the midterms declaring victory, and that's really all that matters, right?