You didn’t have to be The Amazing Kreskin to foresee the funding shortfall in Massachusetts’ new mandatory health insurance plan. If you are minimally observant, this is a recurring theme in most sweeping new government programs. It is kind of funny that it only took one day for it to come out though:

But in the end, legislators were unwilling to adopt some of the measures that the governor and insurers had counted on to lower premiums, and lawmakers and an insurance executive said in interviews yesterday that they expect average premiums under the bill passed this week will be about $325 a month for individuals and as much as twice that for families.

Amazingly, after just admitting the policies are going to cost much more than anticipated, the politicians pat themselves on the backs for supposedly “fooling” the market:

Legislators said they were able to bring premiums below market rates by combining the small-group and individual insurance markets, which are now separate, and by allowing individuals to pay for premiums with pretax dollars.

“Combining” is the politically correct way of saying socializing. They can offer “cheaper” insurance to some by removing choices from everyone. They must force everyone to participate because they need a pool of victims people to subsidize those who are not required to pay or pay much less. Insurance may drop for some, but it is guaranteed to rise for many.

”We have no idea what affordable means right now,” said Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who advised the governor and the House of Representatives on health reform.

Shouldn’t affordability be at the discretion of the consumer? Get the government out of the way and let consumers determine what is affordable in the marketplace.

Where does this train stop? My guess is single-payer state controlled healthcare. After making health insurance unaffordable for everyone through state mandated subsidies and improper funding, the state will declare a crisis, and the only “reasonable” solution will be socialized healthcare to “control” costs. The simple answer to cost control is returning affordability decisions to the consumer and getting government out of the healthcare business.