Unintended Consequences

We started the show tonight with former New York Governor George Pataki talking about the latest unintended consequence of Obamacare: some of the nation's biggest insurers are balking at participating on insurance exchanges that open in just three weeks.

That's a fine how-de-doo for a law that supposedly had the sign-on of all players in the health industry, but insurers are probably acting rationally: apparently their objection is that it's unclear how many already sick customers they will pick up by participating on the exchanges.

Think about it: insurers may find the only folks signing up are the ones that had pre-existing conditions and couldn't get coverage pre-Obamacare. And that is the very issue plaguing the law right now: the entire effort at reforming health care could fail if young, healthy people don't sign on. We'll be watching that in the coming days and weeks ahead!