Why Pelosi's Health Care Bill is bad medicine...

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house and one of the fiercest Democrats in Congress, has launched her own Health Care bill which she aims to put to the vote on Saturday, or early next week.

The problem is? It stinks.

Much like Max Baucus' broken bill, it's filled with useful provisions, but fatally flawed - this time by conceding to the conservatives and including a line that bans illegal immigrants from buying health insurance.

Currently, illegal immigrants are allowed to buy health insurance - many of them just don't. One of the reasons my health insurance premiums jumped 40% this year alone is because hospitals, doctors and clinics are legally required to give free health care to the uninsured - and the costs of providing that 'free' care get passed along to people who actually buy insurance, like myself.

However, some illegal immigrants do buy health insurance - and many more would, if it was a requirement (as it will be for legal residents.) But now, even the minority of illegal immigrants who do buy insurance won't be allowed to - and that means more and more of them will be relying on 'free' health care from cash-strapped emergency-rooms and clinics across the country.

And who pays for that?

We do - the health care consumer.

So instead of reducing costs, like she promised, Nancy Pelosi's bill has immediately made the most pressing problem facing the health care industry worse - and made all of us pay more.