What will happen with "Health Care Reform"?

What will happen with "Health Care Reform"?

1. Health Care will become more expensive by all nearly all measures - as percent of GDP, as percent of average household income , cost per procedure, etc. Politicians will claim that it would have been worse without the reform to protect themselves from political fallout.

2. Access to Healthcare will decrease - waiting times will increase for all.

3. Those on the low end of the income spectrum will be better off because of increased subsidized care. The middle class will be worse off because of having to pay higher premiums and taxes (as well as lower access as mentioned above).

4. Private insurance companies will grow significantly with increased profits from mandated insurance premiums on enterprises and individuals. Small private insurance companies will merge or go out of business because of not being able to function with government mandates. The companies left will achieve the same status as TBTF financial firms. They will use this financial muscle to increase their political clout. Expect to see similar scandals concerning bonuses in the health insurance industry similar to what we currently see in the financial sector.

5. The mandated insurance premium money stream will be taxed by the government to fund other activities (in addition to subsidizing healthcare for low income families). This will cause the costs of the premiums to go up. Politicians will not call this a "tax" but it will be functionally one anyway.

6. The federal government bureaucracy concerning healthcare will also greatly increase in size because of the huge regulatory and enforcement burden from all the rules and mandates.

7. Politicians that voted for the reform will insist that "Health Care Reform" is working by pointing to the increased numbers of insured families (although this was achieved by mandates to purchase covereage). They will also say that more time is needed for the reforms to work.