HISTORIC MOMENT - House Democrats unveiled sweeping legislation to extend health care coverage to millions who lack it, while creating a new option of government-run insurance. A vote is likely this week (yes, this week) on the plan patterned closely on President Barack Obama's plan. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress was "on the cusp of delivering on the promise of making affordable, quality health insurance available to every American."

OR BUREAUCRATIC MONSTROSITY BEING RAILROADED - Have Americans ever voted for this? Does the House really care what the public thinks? Further, do they even know what they are doing? They would have to devour 221 pages a day to have read this 1,990 page life-changing legislation in its entirety before it comes to a vote, promised for before Veterans Day, November 11.

HEALTHCARE WASTE - One thing is for sure...the cost of proposed reforms (whatever they turn out to be) could be at least partially paid for by fixing obvious problems in the current system.  Estimates are that our current healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion each year.  Here are the "biggies":  unnecessary care, such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests, wastes $200 to $300 billion annually, fraud takes another estimated $200 billion a year and administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork account for around $100 to $150 billion in wasted spending each year.

FINE PRINT - Kaiser Health News reports that despite claims the Senate bill will limit what those in the lower and middle income groups will pay for health insurance, "The fine print shows that, over time, the premium costs could rise well beyond those caps." Reason? "The cost of coverage would shift from a percentage of income to a percentage of the premium, no matter how high the premiums go." This will be a big, unpleasant surprise for the working middle class. We predict lots more unpleasant surprises from a government that appears to be totally out of touch and out of control.

PUBLIC OPTION...SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM – There is no evidence that adding another government-run health plan to the slew of existing "public options" (Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP) would do anything to improve competition, control costs and certainly not increase quality. So contends Tomas J. Philipson, the Daniel Levin Professor of Public Policy at The University of Chicago in What's Wrong With Private Insurance?. Read this insightful article at www.forbes.com.

FACT CHECK: HEALTH INSURERS' PROFITS - As part of the health care reform debate, we've heard insurers' profits referred to as immoral and obscene, but what are health insurers' profit margins?  According to the AP, "Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6%, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones. Profits barely exceeded 2% of revenues in the latest annual measure. Health insurers posted a 2.2% profit margin last year, placing them 35th of 53 industries on the Fortune 500 list. As is typical, other health sectors did much better -- drugs and medical products and services were both in the top 10. The railroads brought in a 12.6% profit margin. Leading the list: network and other communications equipment, at 20.4%."  

BROADER OVERSIGHT FOR THE FED - The House Financial Services Committee has released draft legislation that would give the Federal Reserve more oversight authority, including the power to require systemically important firms to shrink. The measure is expected to be highly controversial because many have criticized the Fed for contributing to the global financial crisis. Some think the bill should be for "broader oversight OF the FED."

DIVIDING IN HALF - ING has announced that it intends to split its banking and insurance operations and divest itself of the insurance operations.

CASH FOR CLUNKERS - Automotive Web site Edmunds.com reports that a total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway. This means the government paid $24,000 for each additional vehicle sale. However, auto sales added 1.7% points to the nation's gross domestic product growth for the third quarter. Further, proponents say that the purpose of the program was to be a catalyst to kick-start the economy and that the extra production added this year was a boost to the economy.  In related news, Ford reported a surprise profit for the third quarter, helped by a bump in sales from the Cash for Clunkers program, as well as a reduced cost structure and problems at its U.S. rivals.

REAL ESTATE GAP – According to Pru Real Estate, it will take as much as $825 billion in capital to fill a commercial real estate debt funding gap in the United States over the coming years. "Aggressive lending and valuations during 2005 to 2008 resulted in a large body of commercial properties that will very likely not qualify for mortgages sufficient to pay off existing debt."  The banks and securitization programs, the most aggressive providers of commercial real estate debt then, originated $2.3 trillion of loans during that period. With Wall Street securitization programs largely dismantled and bank lenders severely constrained by legacy balance sheets, the demand for mortgage debt will greatly exceed supply. "We believe that a large of amount of capital will need to be injected into the system, over an extended period of time, to make up for this shortfall, and this is in addition to the approximately $1.5 trillion of new first mortgage debt that will be required."

MORE RED FLAGS ON COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE - U.S regulators on Friday encouraged banks to modify troubled commercial real estate loans, which are seen as a looming danger spot for the banking industry. The regulators issued guidance to financial institutions and said "prudent" loan workouts are often in the best interest of both the borrower and the bank itself.