I am afraid that the regulations and taxes involved with this bill–which, it should be pointed out, has been read by virtually no one who is voting on it–will impede on medical device makers to be as risk-taking and innovative as they are today. The fact that we will begin being taxed on this–directly or indirectly–starting next year, but benefits will not begin until 2014. That–according to the actuarial firm WellPoint–the average cost of health care for a healthy 25-year-old in Milwaukee’s yearly health care cost will rise 178%.

And to your point of not hearing any other suggestions: I agree with you. That said: how do other suggestions or voices rise when our Senate is ramming this 2,000+ page bill through the system in less than a month? Or when the White House is not even entertaining other suggestions?

Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid’s office added a “manager’s amendment” and essentially threw out the original bill after only 17 days on the floor of the Senate Saturday morning. Think about that. The largest bill in the history of the United States Congress lasted only 17 days on the Senate floor, and when the magical Nelson #60 vote was announced, they essentially scrapped it and threw on a “amendment” on a Saturday morning.

I don’t mind that our elected officials take a look at a problem and try to help solve it. I do mind when they jam through a nationally unpopular piece of legislation under the cloak of news cycle dark over the weekend all for the sake of “getting it done.”

From this amateur’s vantage point, this is about as irresponsible and purely political major bill passed since the Patriot Act. Unfortunately, this will likely have an even bigger impact on citizens than that did, and could end up hurting our country for a much longer time.

Lastly: having to continue to pay ever inflating premiums is a problem. However, that is another area that somehow the government has successfully placed the blame at the foot of the private sector.

In fact, government regulation–as usual–has gotten in the way of health insurance companies to be truly competitive by allowing all 50 states to ban interstate policy sales. In other words: Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Nebraska cannot sell their insurance in Kansas (or anywhere else). What do you think happens when only certain companies are allowed to provide services in a state? According to one political ad here in The Good Life, two insurance companies own over 60% of the policies in Nebraska. Is that really a truly competitive environment? Of course not. Yet somehow, the insurance companies are cast as the evil profit mongers in this commercial, and we need the government to swoop in and save the day. It’s the government’s fault this statistic exists!

Granted, this is just one piece of the puzzle. But it is yet another example of government regulation that is supposed to help solve the problem that actually makes the problem worse.