Robbing healthy Peter to pay Paul.

Krugman is a bit longer in the tooth than young Mr. Klein, and he's bitter and looks much older than his age (wonder what that says about his state of health... I still say the man needs to get outside more) -- heck I even hear he picked up one of those Nobels, like President Obama, smart like that... but it's still important to call him every time he tries to spin this new healthcare reform victory that he and Mr. Klein are so proud of.

Instead of trying to sell us on all the benefits for the country under these new insurance reforms though, they took the easy way out and cheered all the one-sided backroom political dealings to foist an insurance mandate on the country. (Really, if insurance were that beneficial to everyone why not sell it on its merits, instead of forcing folks into that high risk pool?)

Pretty much, the insurance Ponzi was failing with out of control costs, unmet needs, and a country that honestly believes you can buy your way to better health, instead of embracing science and common sense over the long haul. There's no sense of preventative maintenance, rewarding those who practice self discipline, or acknowledging that some groups over the generations have worked their way into positions of better health for whatever reason than others passing on their genetics to the next generations. (Maybe physical labor has its place, and working for one's daily bread is a more healthy pursuit afterall than stressing inside over everybody else's business and trying to control their lives through all encompassing solutions?)

So where Krugman sees "gaming the system", I see people forced to carry their less healthy brothers and sisters who are rewarded for their physical shortcomings. We're no longer asking families or communities to step up and provide needed, non-medical care, but we're guaranteeing all unmet needs will be provided courtesy of other taxpayers. What we used to distribute as charity care -- reserved on a case-by-case basis for the helpless and those working to better their physical conditions -- is now awarded through the bureaucratic procedures. No questions asked.

Instead of an "opt out" for those who believe they will pay more into health insurance than they will take out, Mr. Krugman thinks there will be enough of these healthy players forced into the risk pool to float the unhealthy, whose pre-existing* illnesses and medical expenses and treatments will have no ceiling, nor any monetary penalty distinguishing them from those striving to take care of themselves and practice good health.

Really, this guy is an economist, and he thinks it's all going to magically balance, without any incentive to get the unhealthy system into working order? What a magic pill that will be.

And — getting a bit wonkish here — there’s really nothing the Democrats could have done differently other than abandoning the whole effort. If you’re going to attempt near-universal coverage, you have to have community rating, so that people with preexisting conditions can get insurance. If you’re going to have community rating, you have to have an individual mandate, so that healthy people are in the risk pool and people don’t game the system. And if you’re going to have an individual mandate, you have to have substantial subsidies to make insurance affordable.

* funny, I'd think these were the people not only gaming the system, but bankrupting it, hence the need for government reform to interfere with the rational functioning of the free market.

ADDED:
How are you doing this holiday season on keeping up your exercise routines? Here, we've gotten plenty of snow, but on the sunny days, the crisp air makes the daily walks more refreshing. And I've been trying to make it to the pool too, to keep active when the temperatures dip.

It would be a shame, I think, to have to eliminate the time I've budgeted for walks and swims, the money for state park stickers and pool fees, because I've got to pay some unused fee to the insurance companies, who've successfully tinkered with the American free market that allows all of us to make our individual health choices ... then only asks us to bear the consequences of our choices.

Who'd a thunk Mr. Krugman and Mr. Klein would be siding with the Big Bad Business Interests over those working folks trying to make their own decisions and live by them, without the big bad hand of business forcing us to subsidize their failed business plans.

I wonder how they celebrated the victory? With a good, home-cooked meal and a nice walk with friends to appreciate the little things, and work off the stress inside? Sure hope so. Because imagine how the doors are opened now to judge the health choices of others, floating in that pool you forced us all into...