Historically, voters are a fickle lot.

Not this time. According to an op-ed piece in this morning’s Wall Street Journal, the American public actually remains consistent.

“In 15 consecutive Rasmussen Reports polls conducted over the past four months, the percentage of Americans that oppose the plan has stayed between 52 percent and 58 percent. The number in favor has held steady between 38 percent and 44 percent,” Scott Rasmussen and Doug Schoen explain.

Senior citizens – the most active health care users – remain the most steadfast opponents of its reform, the authors point out. In fact, for every voter calling Congress in support of reform, two more are railing against it.

Despite a charismatic hero (Obama), classic villains (insurance companies) and a 21^st century public relations campaign verging on textbook, the White House just can’t get any more traction than Wile E. Coyote once he races off that cliff.

Meanwhile, everyone complains about health care in this country. It’s almost as American as Canada-bashing (speaking of bad health care).

A colleague of mine likens it to the general American discontent with members of Congress. Sure, we all want to “throw the bums out,” but we never do. Incumbents are harder to get rid of than Girl Scout cookies.

So, here we all sit, bitching and moaning about premium hikes and pre-existing conditions, but don’t you dare do anything to change it.

One of my college favorites, William Gibson, once said, “The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.”

Massachusetts' groundbreaking (and wallet-busting) foray in health care reform is a textbook example.

Less than five years after Massachusetts set the stage for state-run health care, Gov. Deval Patrick now brazenly admits that maybe it’s time for firm price controls across the board.

Did I hear an “I told you so?” (Certainly wasn’t me.)

I suppose it’s not enough that the state’s Medicaid and Medicare programs are already shifting costs, and anemic reimbursements rates are gutting providers. Now they have to face hard premium caps and regulatory rate reviews.

Now that special election is starting to make sense. I would’ve voted for a truck driver, too.

But, jokes aside, we need to wake up and see this (failing?) political experiment for what it is: a very real premonition of what Obamacare could bring.

Need numbers? According to the Wall Street Journal, fiscal 2010 taxpayer costs in Massachusetts soared $47 million over budget, while the state’s average insurance premiums are easily the nation’s highest. In the last four years, individual market rates have jumped 30 percent annually. In fact, per capita spending on health care in the Bay State is nearly 30 percent higher than the national average.

So as this new reality threatens us all like some kind of federally-funded bogeyman, I’m reminded of another college favorite, Malcolm X, who said, "The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Are you prepared?

I swear, I was gonna write about Obama’s own health care proposal today (and, for the record, now you can call it Obamacare.)

But I stumbled across an e-mail from a still-faithful reader, questioning my criticism of the president, wondering out loud why I was so hard on the guy.

And I guess the easiest answer I can come up with is that I was just a little disappointed.

Few things sting as much as disappointment. Growing up, hearing that old classic, “I’m so disappointed in you,” hurt far more than the silence, the screaming or even that old brown leather belt.

But don’t take my word for it. Ask the president, who ran such a flawless campaign, and now suffers an equally historic voter backlash fueled by, yeah, you guessed it, disappointment.

Or how about the Democrats in Congress, who rode Obama’s coattails into a supermajority last November? How much groundbreaking legislation did they manage to pass with that? Exactly. None.

The Republicans aren’t exempt. The disenfranchised Congressional minority has managed to turn the party of reconstruction into one of obstruction. Even party savior Sen. Scott Brown has fallen out of favor already with support of the latest jobs bill.

And Americans across the board are as disappointed as ever – if that’s not terribly understating it. A new survey shows that “67 percent of respondents say the GOP is not doing enough to cooperate with the White House, up 6 points from last April.” More than 50 percent add that Obama isn’t doing enough, either. While nearly 60 percent say Democrats should be the first to make a move toward reconciliation – or at least cooperation.

Check out the story for yourself here: www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/24/partisanship.poll/

Point is, most of us are sick of the constant bickering. I know I am.

Looks like yet another carrier has surged ahead as the latest public punching bag. Problem is that once again, the mainstream media hasn’t let the facts get in the way of a good lynching.

Not that the hypocrites on Capitol Hill are about to be outdone, since they’ve decided to call WellPoint execs to Capitol Hill to testify before Rep. Henry Waxman’s version of the McCarthy hearings. But instead of Commie Reds, they’re hoping to root out the Anthem Blues. You know the kind: those evil, money-grubbing, heartless insurance carriers who (gasp) try to make a buck.

I’m sure you know the story by now - back in November, the Indianapolis-based carrier filed a rate increase proposal for its California Anthem subsidiary. The worst-case scenario pointed to premium jumps as high as 39 percent. After mulling it over for three months, the media went nuts. And, of course, those Pavlovian politicians followed suit.

Now while the headlines – and talking heads – scream “40 percent premium hike,” the reality is that there’s a bit more to the story. For starters, less than a quarter of the company’s 800,000 individual policyholders would be affected. The actual average jump – while still high – would hover around 25 percent, while some policyholders would see rate decreases.

I’m not here to make excuses here for anyone. And I’ve never been a cheerleader for the carriers (just ask my friends over at AIG), but let’s at least be fair.

By the way, anybody else think it’s ironic that as we all raise our CEO effigies in protest of these “criminal” rate hikes, public support for health care reform continues to tumble?

So while the snow keeps lawmakers from raising our taxes at least a few more days, I thought it might be a good time to point out a couple of things.

For starters, for those of you against socialized medicine (and I count myself among you), you’ll be surprised (distraught?) to learn we’re already halfway there.

According to the federal number-crunchers, for the first time ever, government programs will make up more than half of all health care spending in the country next year. It’s just one more thing you can blame on the economy, as the Medicaid rolls grow and the private insurance business suffers.

In 2008, according to the federal study, 47 percent of the nation’s $2.34 trillion in health care spending came from public funds. The eggheads estimate that’ll jump to 50.4 percent next year. Scary.

Check out the entire sad Wall Street Journal story here: http://bit.ly/dl6Q4L

On the flip side, I was happy to see a GOP health care reform counter-proposal on the table this morning to the Democratic plans making the rounds. Sure, the 10-point strategy offered up by John C. Goodman and Newt Gingrich has its issues, as well, but I couldn’t be happier to see something other than more complaints. Now that we’re getting other ideas out there, maybe we can make some real progress. Well, as long as we’re not talking about another routine federal appointment.

While we stand around arguing over mandates, filibusters and tea parties (and I thought we were a coffee-drinking nation), the Treasury gets worse every day. In fact, it makes Lehman Brothers look like Wal-Mart.

I know, while Obama moves on to financial reform – since health care reform so historically ran off the rails – those of us fortunate enough to still have jobs (and remain healthy) face a retirement as secure as a Toyota stockholder.

But nowhere among the administration’s list of proposals will you find anything aimed at helping the middle class retirement saver. In fact, all the president proposes is the inclusion of a direct-deposit IRA in which we fund our own retirement. Yeah, that’s gonna work. Because we all know what great savers American are all on their own, with little-to-no incentive. In fact, less than 5 percent of Americans contribute to personal IRAs right now.

And while we worry over bonuses and bailouts, the feds continue to run their Ponzi scheme in Washington. Only we know it as Social Security and Medicare. And Timothy Geithner’s in charge. Not Bernie Madoff.

You want real reform? Let’s actually give employees an incentive to save and fundamentally change how we fund our senior entitlement programs. Yeah, likes that’s gonna happen.

There’s always so much talk about health care and all the problems that come with trying to “reform” such a damaged, yet entrenched, system.

So it’s always refreshing to see someone step up and – instead of just adding another voice to the cacophony – do something about it.

The latest example comes out of Whole Foods, where they’ve instated a wellness program to encourage employees to lose weight and the cigarettes. The incentive comes in the form of an increased employee discount, which jumps from 20 percent to 30 percent for those who hit certain goals regarding cholesterol, blood pressure and body mass index. Oh yeah, and you’ve got to drop the nicotine.

Personally, I like it. Throw in some kind of gym membership incentive or alcohol exemption, and I’m in. (OK, just joking about that last part.)

Sure, programs like this are aimed at trimming the organic grocery chain’s reported $150 million benefits tab from last year, but it also puts the responsibility right where it belongs: on the health care consumer.

And I think, ultimately, this is where the real answer might be hiding.

See, as I worked through my New Year’s shopping list (complete with sparkling cider for the short Storeys in attendance this year), I couldn’t help but notice – again – the conflicting goals of the House and Senate health care bills. Both promise to scare up trillions in Medicare savings over the next decade to cover millions of uninsured.

And while we’re at it, the bills also promise a way to shore up the troubled Medicare trust fund. Talk about fuzzy math.

I also (finally) felt a little vindicated by yesterday’s New York Times op-ed piece that expounded concerns I brought up about this months ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/health/policy/29health.html 

The column takes aim at Congressional Budget Office and the practice of so-called double counting. (Yeah, I had a boss who did that. She was 39 for at least 10 years.)

So, as we turn out the lights on another decade, where will we find ourselves the next time around? Will there even be a trust fund on Dec. 2019? Or will we all find ourselves standing in line for government health? 

Happy new year.

Forget whistling past the graveyard. It’s clear from last night’s historic political beat down that the Democrats resemble one of those warbling American Idol rejects. (And not even good enough to stick in the brain like old Mr. “Pants on Da Ground".)

Although it felt right to be at a bar watching the Democrats surrender Ted Kennedy’s seat, at the time it seemed to make about as much sense as a Heidi Montag interview.

But in the cool light of day, it’s clear the Dems learned nothing over the last 12 months. Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown won because his opponent ran a campaign plagued by indifference and idiots. Brown’s got a new job because Massachusetts voters know how perilously expensive their own universal health care has become. Brown will be heading to Washington quite simply because voters across the country have never trusted the federal government less.

It’s not that the big banks are the problem. Or the insurance carriers. Or even the president himself (although I’m sure many of you would disagree).

The problem is the government is swelling faster and bigger than my daughter’s first pimple. And all the Democrats want to do is keep piling on, thinking (somehow) that feeding the beast will make it more efficient, more responsive and more in tune with the rest of us. But how could it be? When they’re not, either?

Is it too late to start over?

Looking back over the last week of news, it seems like the obvious threatens to overtake us.

Let’s see, we have a politician saying something stupid and being exposed months (or years) later in some political memoir, (see Reid, Harry, soon-to-be-former Nevada senator and Palin, Sarah).

We have a former record-breaking pro athlete admitting to steroid use (see McGwire, Mark, soon-never-to-be in the baseball hall of fame).

Oh, and we have a former vice-presidential pick taking a job at Fox News. Yeah, none of us saw that coming.

I bring all this up only because just this morning I saw a report somewhere – think I spilled coffee on it already – that America’s Health Insurance Plans pulled in somewhere between $10 million to $20 million from a handful of insurance companies: Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint. AHIP reportedly then handed the cash over to the U.S. Chamber to pay for a few health reform attack ads. And while the story plays out in a breathless, can-you-believe-this style, the bottom line is that this really isn’t that much of a story. It’s called lobbying. There’s nothing remotely illegal or even immoral about this.

You can see the story for yourself here. Let me know what you think.

It's a little disappointing that with so much real news going on (let's see if Haiti gets as much airtime as Leno), we have to resort to so much barrel scraping. But, then again, I suppose that shouldn't comes as a surprise either.