Yet somehow the one thing this bill completely ignores. This is NOT universal health care along the Scandinavian model (in Camillas country, I'm told, private health insurance doesn't exist, not because it's illegal, but because there's no market for it, another fine example of how much better privatization is than government programs. ) Forcing everyone to do something at their own expense is not at all the same as making something available to everyone regardless of expense. I'm actually worried this will make cost growth WORSE, because, well, think about it:

300 million people are now REQUIRED to buy healthcare from SOMEONE. If they can't afford it the government will (theoretically) underwrite the costs. Bottom line: There's about to be a MASSIVE increase in the number of health insurance consumers. The only reason insurers have for not demanding as much as they like from people legally required to pay it is competition (assuming the state exchanges don't just replace state monopolies with collusion. )