In 4 years of Romneycare, Massachusetts' health care costs have risen fast and are gobbling a growing share of the state budget

Emergency rooms remain as crowded as ever; about a third of the non-elderly go at least once a year, and half their visits involve "non-emergency conditions." As for improvements in health, most probably lie in the future. "Many of the uninsured were young and healthy," writes Long. Their "expected gains in health status" would be mostly long-term. Finally -- and most important -- health costs continue to soar.

Aside from squeezing take-home pay (employers provide almost 70 percent of insurance), higher costs have automatically shifted government priorities toward health care and away from everything else -- schools, police, roads, prisons, lower taxes. In 1990, health spending represented about 16 percent of the state budget, says the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. By 2000, health's share was 22 percent. In 2010, it's 35 percent. About 90 percent of the health spending is Medicaid.

State leaders have proven powerless to control these costs. Facing a tough re-election campaign, Gov. Deval Patrick effectively ordered his insurance commissioner to reject premium increases for small employers (50 workers or less) and individuals -- an unprecedented step. Commissioner Joseph Murphy then disallowed premium increases ranging from 7 percent to 34 percent. The insurers appealed; hearing examiners ruled Murphy's action illegal. Murphy has now settled with one insurer allowing premium increases, he says, of 7 percent to 11 percent. More settlements are expected.

Will Uncle Sam control health costs as he did gas?

If the government wants to get serious about making health care more affordable, it needs only to look in the mirror. It's tough to blame insurance companies for all our health care problems when the government controls more of the entire industry (around 50%) through Medicare and Medicaid. Not only do these program deny more people coverage per capita than private insurers, these programs significantly raise costs for everyone.

Medicare and Medicaid pay Walgreens, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies at a rate set by the federal government. This is a form of price controls. The wonderful news is that the Obamacare bill that was rammed through the House last Sunday is going to multiply this practice throughout the entire industry.

Governments have never been great at regulating prices. Remember the gas crisis in the 70s? The long lines and rationing came because the United States attempted to control gas prices. This is what we get to look forward to with Obamacare