Another shocking result - who could POSSIBLY have foreseen this?

"Economists are people who insist on taking trade-offs seriously..."

- Professor Timothy Taylor, Economics (3rd ed.), The Teaching Company

Politicians, of course, are not.

So, the state of Hawaii has decided to scrap it's universal child health care plan. Why?

A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan. "People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."

Everyone is shocked, right? Shocked - shocked! - to find that subsidizing behavior (in this case, subsidizing people not to pay for their kids health care) resuots in more of it. How could you possibly have seen that coming?

But I'm sure that Senator Government Obama's proposals won't introduce and distortions or unintended consequences into the health care market...