I have one friend who is a very senior hospital administrator and another friend who has spent his whole career in health insurance.  Both are lifelong Republicans, and both opposed Obamacare.  In separate conversations, they both said that healthcare is now so hopelessly complex that it will certainly fail.  Both said the only way out of this mess will be a single-payer system, like Europe where universal health care is provided to everybody by the government.  They agreed there is no going back – “you can’t unbreak an egg.”

I pointed out to each friend that the President originally wanted a single-payer healthcare system but was forced to settle for “Romneycare.”  Each of them just nodded in agreement and warned me that the process of getting from an unacceptable healthcare system, where 30-40 million people received minimal healthcare, to a real healthcare system — requires a painful detour through Obamacare.  I jokingly asked if we were going through Purgatory in route to Heaven.  Neither thought that was funny!

If that is the case, what is the time horizon?  What does that suggest for the stock of health insurance companies?  For other medical related companies?  For medical research?

And, how does either political party benefit from this?