Obama Makes Healthcare Reform Pitch to AMA

Everyone knows that the U.S. health care system is broken and is in dire need of changes. But few agree on exactly what those changes are and how they can be implemented without further complicating and damaging an already delicate situation. And who's going to be calling the shots on such a massive and complicated undertaking? That's right, your elected leaders in the legislative and executive branches of government. So, ultimately, we'll have very deftly crafted health care legislation written by elected officials who are grossly unqualified to tackle such a task.

Fortunately for us, our elected officials have access to highly capable legislation writers and those with a detailed and clear understanding of just how the current U.S. health care system works. Unfortunately for us, those people are the lobbyists for the U.S. health care industry - and they're not going to have our best interests in mind.

So what we're likely to see is a ton of political posturing and hours of rhetoric about health care reform. And at the end of the day U.S. taxpayers are going to take on massive amounts of new debt to finance some broad-based (but ultimately vague) new incarnation of the health care system. Stated goals will be to provide affordable coverage to the millions of uninsured Americans while maintaining a high level of care for all. That sure sounds expensive and complex.

Fortunately we'll get to hear all about it over the course of the summer, then watch as very little changes over the next five years.