First of all, look at the overall bill and what is likely to happen and not just one of its provisions right now, the mandate that we buy health insurance but with subsidies for the poor. Even now the mandate subsidies greatly decrease going forward, because they aren't pro-rated with the inflation of premiums. But also, I expect in the current extreme anti-deficit environment that health care subsidies will be cut back even further. End result will likely be mandated but very crappy health insurance with minimal subsidies. So, the bill becomes in the end a huge tax increase on some of the poorer members of our society.

Generally, the worst thing about the bill is that it does nothing regarding cost controls (which is exactly what one would expect of a bill largely written by the private health care industry). So costs, already outrageous, will continue to rise, while already disfunctional and costly service provision will only get worse (because worse means more profitable).

fairleft