Insurance companies and the parable of the Hamburger Stand.

[catnhatnh]

A lot of posters have asked "if the health care bill is so bad why are insurance companies spending millions to lobby against it"? OR:"if the health care bill is so good why are insurance stocks up 30%'?
It does seem contradictary if the game is zero sum. Or maybe its a Rovian fake-out?

Rest easy-the truth is (as almost always) between the extremes.

I own the only hamburger stand in town.There's another stand a town over but he doesn't sell to out of town customers and neither do I. We like each other and often discuss how much we can charge per burger before our customer base cuts our profits back.We think 45% this year.Things are swell in non anti-trust world. But the state legislature is trying to horn in-they insist everyone has the right to burgers and that it's immoral to charge $5.00 for a burger containing just .50 pounds of beef. They think my burger prices should be tied to a percentage of the beefs cost. I hate that shit.

So I sent $5.00 to the chamber of commerce who are fighting this socialist government take over of fast food. My investors are pouring the money in since even if this passes my net profits are going to soar even at the reduced profit margin-get this-if it passes the legislature is gonna force everyone,even the vegans to eat burgers!!!

So for me it's kind of win-win, and for most consumers there's a small upside. I'll be okay unless they go crazy up there and start offering gov't .99 burgers statewide....yours, Burgerguy.