Well! That worked well, didn't it? (As opposed to Medicare for all, I mean.) Possibly the president and our congressional leadership is beginning to understand just what happens when you invite the health insurance vampires into your house:

Several health insurance companies have announced that they are ending insurance coverage for children because the new law won't let them turn away the sick ones anymore. That's right - WellPoint, CoventryOne and others are refusing to issue new child-only policies because the companies will no longer be able to deny coverage to children with "pre-existing conditions." They blame their actions on the new health care law, not their own greed. Even for the insurance industry this behavior is surprisingly brazen. They don't like the rules, so they're going to take their ball and go home.

The insurance companies announced their plans to turn away sick kids only days before Sept. 23, when important parts of the health insurance law take effect. These include consumer protections that end the worst of insurance company abuses. The law puts an end to odious practices like dropping people because they got sick, putting annual and lifetime limits on how much coverage you can get from the insurance policy you rightly thought covered everything, and denying children coverage because they're sick.

Once the law is fully implemented, insurance companies will not be able to deny any of us coverage because we have an illness, or drop us when we do, or force us into bankruptcy because of caps on how much of our health care they'll pay for (you can read a summary here). That's why this law really is a BFD, and that's why this latest move by the insurance companies is so over the top.

See? Dems running away from the bill (after helping to neuter it in the first place) have created a favorable environment for this game of political "chicken." Now it's coming back to haunt them -- and this time, they'd better not blink.