WARNING LABEL: PELOSICARE IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

WARNING LABEL: PELOSICARE IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH: "It's too bad the health care overhaul that House Democrats narrowly approved last week isn't a medical product. If it were, it would have to come with a warning label, says Michael F. Cannon, director of health policy studies with the Cato Institute.

This product will increase your health insurance premiums:

* Millions who are satisfied with their current, low-cost health plans would have to switch to more expensive plans, solely because Congress decided they weren't buying enough coverage.
* The legislation would increase premiums even further over time, as drug companies, chiropractors, acupuncturists, fertility specialists and other special interests lobby Congress to force you to purchase coverage for their services too.

This product will reduce the quality of your health care:

* America's health care sector is often inconvenient, poorly coordinated, and makes less use of information technology than your local supermarket; research shows that medical errors kill as many as 100,000 Americans per year.
* Markets would solve those problems, but government thwarts doctors and entrepreneurs who try to improve quality; Medicare -- by far the largest purchaser of medical services in the world -- actually penalizes doctors and hospitals that reduce medical errors.
* The House bill would cement those deficiencies in place with yet another massive government program, and create new quality problems, like insurers skimping on care and customer service for the sickest patients.

This product probably won't make you healthier:

* The House bill would expand coverage, but at a steep cost and with zero evidence that doing so is a cost-effective way of improving health.
* Little research supports the notion that broadly expanding insurance coverage makes people healthier; Medicare established near-universal coverage for the elderly, yet research shows that program didn't save a single life in its first 10 years of operation.
* Whether it has had any subsequent impact on mortality rates -- positive or negative -- remains an open question.

This product will make you poorer:"