Rich Lowry is essentially correct in his assessment of the Obama health care proposal, though he missed one absolutely crucial element.

Currently, insurance companies must operate only with the funds they can convince someone to voluntarily turn over, which then pays for the health care of those contracted individuals. The government will extort money from everyone for health care, whether they chose to use that option or not. Thus, they can tax 300 million people, but provide services for only, say, 100 million people, initially. Of course it appears that they can provide those services for less money, because the rest of the nation is subsidizing it -- three people are paying for every one who has chosen that plan.

Shortly, everyone sees government health care seems to be cheaper, but once all 300 million people sign on, we figure out that there was only really enough money for 100 million people, leaving 3 choices: raise taxes to actually cover the real costs, reduce services (rationing), or increase the deficit.

•Dr. Richard Sharp, Highland