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" So, while all the yapping was going on in Washington, this happened, too. The administration sees the lower-than-expected premiums as a sign that the plan to drive down health costs for consumers by increasing competition is working. They also point to the insurers entering the individual health insurance market for the first time as a sign of strong competition, as well as the variety of plans that will be available on the market. For families nationwide, &amp;quot;these new options will finally make health insurance work within their budget,&amp;quot; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Tuesday. She noted that, according to the report, six in 10 uninsured Americans will be able to find coverage for less than $100 a month, while the average consumer in one of the 36 states with a federally-run marketplace will be able to choose from an average of 53 different plans. Wait. You mean in order to attract millions of new (rate-paying) customers, insurance companies might compete by offering more attractive deals? Unpossible!  A lot of this report is based on guesswork, largely because the whole program isn&amp;#039;t on-line yet. (The opportunities for gouging the customers will not become obvious until all parts of the plan are up and running. Yes, I am a cynic.) This is an administration report, so the people disinclined to believe anything the administration says will dismiss it. There is still a strong and well-financed opposition to the plan in general, and that opposition has proven itself to be willing to ignore reality and to encourage the gullible to do likewise. We are very likely to see an avalanche of anecdotes about people who have trouble navigating the system, each one of which, no matter how spurious, will be used as evidence against the whole. I even will put my own distrust of those greedy gombeen bastards in America&amp;#039;s health-insurance industry aside for the moment, but nonetheless mention that, while this is unquestionably good, and extremely -- some might say curiously -- well-timed news, we ought not to start doing to each other what Winston Wolf suggested we not do to each other yet. But, this is still an indication that one part of the plan seems to be working. If the administration needs something to message up against revisionist readings of Green Eggs and Ham, it has it now. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19546/health-care-and-free-market-092513/>