Obama and Insurance Premiums

[From article]
"In 301 AD, the Roman emperor Diocletian imposed price controls on most commodities and professions in the empire. The penalty for raising prices was death. Yet the controls failed utterly, leading to shortages, more inflation and the near collapse of the imperial economy.[. . .]
Medicare already reimburses at roughly 80 cents on every dollar of actual costs. Medicaid pays even less. As a result, more than a third of physicians have closed their practices to Medicaid patients; 12 percent no longer accept Medicare patients.
[. . .]
more than 750,000 Britons are waiting for admission to hospitals. Every year, British physicians cancel almost 50,000 surgeries because patients on the waiting list become too sick for the operations to proceed.

In Canada, almost 800,000 people are on the waiting list for care. And, according to the Canadian Supreme Court, many are in chronic pain and some will die while waiting for treatment."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/price_controls_by_any_other_name_U1itPDcdkkV9creOxoysFK

Price controls by any other name
By MICHAEL TANNER
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:02 PM, February 23, 2010
Posted: 12:21 AM, February 23, 2010