Grace-Marie Turner summarizes part of Jon Caldara‘s talk at a sold-out conference sponsored by the Colorado Health Foundation:

Jon Caldara, president of the Colorado-based Independence Institute, asked the members of the audience to raise their hand if they have homeowner’s insurance, then car insurance, and then life insurance. Virtually all in the audience raised their hand each time. Then he asked how many of them expect to file a claim on those policies this year. No hands went up.

He used the example to show that health insurance is indeed different, because people expect to use this insurance regularly. Yet, he argued, the cost of the policy is generally hidden from the insured, so people expect to cycle bills for even the most routine health care services through health insurance, driving up the cost of insurance dramatically.

Turner continues:

I said that we absolutely do need health reform but argued that the ACA [HR 3590] builds on dysfunctional systems in both the private and public sectors, and it will cause a cascade of negative consequences: …

Read more at the Health Affairs blog: The Colorado Health Symposium’s Debate.