Drowning in the Big Pool

President Obama, as many people know, was on Letterman last night. Now, I know - it's a comedy oriented talk show, it wasn't a policy visit, it was a "I'm a good guy, like me" appearance. And he did pretty well, I think. Except for one big mistake that he has repeated over and over about mandatory private health insurance.

Obama says that all the self employed and otherwise uninsurable people seeking private insurance will form a big pool that will be able to get the same kind of rates as big employer groups. Well, they could have done that all along. What was stopping them? The same thing that will be stopping them when coverage is mandatory.

In order for a group to negotiate rates, there has to be a NEGOTIATOR (a person who does the bargaining) and they have to make a decision to go with the best deal. AT&T doesn't just say "look, insurance industry, we have hundreds of thousands of employees, if you want a taste of them you've got to give each one a good deal." No, they have som HR person who uses the VOLUME of the group as leverage to get ONE vendor.

The idea that since all of us as individuals must be insured and can pick any policy we want, insurance companies will somehow be pressured to lower their rates to get our business is ludicrous. I wish our otherwise very intelligent president would realize this.