Obama says on Sunday, “premiums went up by 5.5% in the last year,” like insurance premiums rise in some vacuum. Better to say the cost of health care services went up by 5.5 %, then you are framing the real problem.

The problem of turn downs, pre-existing conditions, etc. can all be solved by some new rules, but none of that will do anything to lower the skyrocketing costs of health care. AND, Obama says that if the costs are not brought down that Medicare will run higher and higher deficits. That is another way of saying that Medicare itself cannot do anything about the rising costs, which also means a public option certainly won’t be able to do any better.

What does that mean? That with a public option you might get a one time lowering of PREMIUMS by some percentage, but after that, we back off to the races. Because, if Medicare, with its bargaining power and leverage, according to Obama, can’t halt the rise in costs, the public option, with even less power won’t be able to do it either.

I have not heard anyone come up with a credible explanation for the rise in health care service costs. That to me is the nitty gritty that must be drilled down to.

Again, these are details and logistics that have not been very well thought out.

I still miss Donita.

I found myself longing for Chuck Barris’s Gong Show Hook.