Obamacare fallout

From Bookworm Room:

 

Last night, I was speaking with a liberal friend who actually works in the insurance business. During the run up to the health care vote, she and I had politely vigorous conversations in which I explained, over and over again, that, if penalties are lower than the cost of insurance, and if insurers must provide insurance to sick people, insurance no longer exists. Instead, one just has cost shifting that will destroy the insurance industry. She of all people, after all, should realize that the industry only makes money on healthy people who are planning ahead in case they get sick. (Here's an example of the type of conversation I had with her.)

In last night's conversation, my friend seemed a bit disturbed by things, and asked me how I thought health care was going now that the bill was passed.  Since I understand how liberals think, I didn't answer her question directly.  Instead, I mentioned the recent Boston Globe article that suddenly informed us that citizens in Massachusetts are doing precisely what I predicted would happen under the Obama Care bill:

Thousands of consumers are gaming Massachusetts' 2006 health insurance law by buying insurance when they need to cover pricey medical care, such as fertility treatments and knee surgery, and then swiftly dropping coverage, a practice that insurance executives say is driving up costs for other people and small businesses.

I also threw in the fact that the New York Times is suddenly writing a series of articles about the unsustainable costs of medical care.  In other words, I went to sources my friend trusts, since they have good liberal bona fides.

My friend was shocked:  "Why didn't anyone tell us about this before?"  I replied, quite mildly, "I did."  She had the grace to fall silent.

It turns out that my friend didn't raise the issue randomly.  The people in her insurance office are getting panicky because they've suddenly realized that they've entered the insurance Twilight Zone, where all the rules are upside down.

What's truly ironic is that the executives in her office, like my friend herself, backed the bill.  The guys and gals with MDs and MBAs and Obama bumper stickers boldly affixed to the back of their cars had their heads up their collective butts for the past year. How else to explain their inability to see the patently obvious? In 1992, insurers fought back with "Harry and Louise;" in 2010, those same insurers tucked their heads between their legs and sought the darkness.

UPDATE:  This video, describing the already known costs of Obama Care, is perfect:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Liberals were not only not listening, they had their hand on their ears, their eyes closed, and they were hollering, "Nyah, nyah!  I caaaaan't hear you."