The Steussy Ranch

This one hurt. Ted Kennedy is spinning in his grave. And I personally felt someone’s hand on my wallet.

It’s all about Health Care. Let’s go over the impossibilities now. The House has a chance to pass the Senate version of the bill unchanged. Unfortunately, this would leave all of the Senate pork intact (and there was a lot of it, ask anyone in Nebraska). And none of the House pork would be there, so they have little reason to vote for it other than the kindness of their hearts.

The Republicans will not welcome a bipartisan solution after this victory; they smell blood in the water. They think that the next round of elections this Fall will overturn Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate if they do what they just did; running against Obamacare.

There are a lot of good reasons to dislike Obama’s Health Care plan, not least the political deals made Democrat-to-Democrat in getting the thing done, simply because individuals saw it was in their power to insist on their pound of flesh. It was ugly.

But something really needs to be done. Even if our health insurance only rises by eleven percent a year, as it did this year, we will soon see it as the biggest part of our budget. Bigger than the cost of the house we own. Bigger than anything in the business. Just compounding our current rates, not accounting for the vast change we will face when I turn 50 in three years, here is what we will have:

2010     $15,400
2011     $17,094
2012     $18,974

2013     $21,062  I turn 50 this year, so we will face a diametric increase in our rates. For simplicity, I am sticking with the 11% increases here.

2014     $23,378

2015     $25,950  This is the year medical costs of our healthy family will exceed our mortgage.

2016     $28,804
2017     $31,973
2018     $35,490

This is not a good thing, Massachusetts. Not a good thing at all.