This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The Health Care Summit is supposed to bring the best ideas from the White House and Congress,

but it's unlikely anything will change.

Public opinion is against the President's plan in neither side shows signs of giving in.

And the President's plan is chock full of price controls,

something economists know a fair bit about.

Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, looks at the

President's plan.

In anticipation of the health care summit the President is holding with Republicans on

Thursday, President Obama released a health plan. summit that the president is holding with Republicans on Thursday.

President Obama released a health plan that he wants to use as a starting point for negotiations.

Now all this is is a plan that splits the difference between the House and Senate legislation,

which the public opposes by a wide margin.

And in some cases, the President's plan makes the House and Senate legislation worse.

In particular, what the only new thing... plan makes the House and Senate legislation worse.

In particular, the only new thing I think

that's in the President's proposal that

wasn't in the House and Senate bills

is that the President would give the Secretary of Health and Human Services the authority

to impose additional price controls on health insurance premiums.

There's been news of late that in California insurers are jacking up the premiums that they're

...