All I have to do it seems, is go the month of January 2014 without getting sick or injured until my new ObamaCare policy kicks in, and then I see this in the local news:

The CDC is reporting a 23 percent increase in H1N1 cases in the Southeast.  Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Jhung with the CDC Flu Division said, “It’s affecting a different age group this year.” Dr. Jhung added, “Georgia’s Department of Health reports 4 deaths so far from the flu, including a child who had underlying medical conditions. The latest report from week 51 shows there were 53 hospitalizations.”

So there's that.  Twenty-nine more days to go.

Meanwhile, alert reader Worriedparent from Australia noted the high insurance rates that I'm paying and wrote, "I'm amazed at the cost of your premiums! I'm assuming you don't get free care at hospital emergency rooms or bulk billing by G.P's."  Well, there's more Worriedparent, and you won't believe this: after I had been told that my $350/month policy had been cancelled because I didn't renew at $420/month within the five days that they had granted me, I got a bill in the mail anyway from the insurer saying that January 2014 would cost me not $420, but $587.50!  Almost twice what I originally enrolled for in 2012, and I've yet make my first claim!  I refuse to re-enroll at that rate, but it does make me feel a little bit better about the $450/month ObamaCare policy that starts February 1.

Yes, Worriedparent, our rates are exorbitant, and no, there's no free care here.  While hospitals are required to treat those who need emergency care regardless of whether they're insured or not, they still try and recoup their costs from those they treat, and illnesses and injuries are the Number 1 cause of personal bankruptcies in the United States.  If they can't recover the cost, the hospitals add it to their "overhead" and increase the billings to everyone else, driving up the cost of health care (and insurance premiums).  This results in many of the unemployed and poor using the Emergency Room as their primary care vehicle, and not treating an illness until it become life-threatening or critical and qualifies for emergency care.

Yet despite all the money we spend on health care (more per capita than any other nation), Americans can still expect to die sooner and experience higher rates of disease and injury.  When compared with other affluent nations, the U.S. is at or near the bottom in infant mortality, low birth weight, injuries, homicides, teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted disease, HIV and AIDS, drug-related deaths, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and chronic lung disease.  

The system clearly is not working.  We're getting sick and dying young, and paying more that we can afford for the privilege of being chronically ill.