It would have been easier and cheaper—but that’s not the Democrat way

The Columbus Dispatch yesterday had one of those health insurance tear jerker stories--single man, no family, too young for Medicare, and apparently too rich for Medicaid. His surgery had already been covered up to $30,000 by a state program, but he's getting bills for the rest (didn't say what that was--it was rotator cuff surgery). And he will be covered by Obamacare if Gov. Kasich takes the federal carrot, which will be used up in a few years. And even with the explanation which this poor young journalist tried to paste together from an extremely complex law, looked to me wouldn't cover his situation anyway.

Why didn't Obama go for that small window of people who fell through the cracks of the other government health care programs--Medicaid, VA, S-CHIP. Thousands will be hired to "help" people sign up and comply with the new regulations; where were they when millions didn't know which government programs to use? Millions of young people just did not want to pay the employers' co-pay so that's why they didn't have insurance--now the young will be hardest hit. Many others were wealthy enough to self insure.

But covering just those who needed it, he couldn't take over 1/5 of the economy.  He had a crisis—the high unemployment and a temporary recession—so he used it to grab the health care industry and institute many new taxes.