Chicago Tribune, June 22: Talk about bad timing for President Barack Obama.

There he was on June 15, exhorting doctors at an American Medical Association confab to join his once-in-a-generation overhaul of health care in America. He drew several standing ovations, even as he told them things that would probably cut their pay.

But then, on the same day, came an astonishing Congressional Budget Office analysis of what all this could cost.

The CBO analyzed the first major health care proposal introduced, by Sen. Edward Kennedy, and concluded that it would cost more than $1 trillion over 10 years. That sent a jolt of sticker shock through Congress.

But hold on. Here’s the kicker to that breathtaking figure: Even after spending all that money, 37 million Americans still wouldn’t have health insurance.

Yes, that’s a tentative analysis, as the CBO warned. It will change as the bill is fleshed out. And the Kennedy bill is only one of several health care reform proposals now percolating in Congress.

But the analysis sure seemed to rattle advocacy groups and the White House. “This is not the administration’s bill and it’s not even the final Senate committee bill,” a White House spokesman said.

Ooh, chilly.

So, OK, this is a work in progress, things will change, blah blah blah. But the point here is that the CBO analysis tells us three things that probably won’t change, no matter how a major health care reform law is crafted.

It will be complicated, extremely expensive and full of unforeseen consequences.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 21: The bottom line on the American health care system is that it makes absolutely no sense.

No one – not conservatives or liberals, doctors or patients, businessmen or humanitarians – would design such a system starting from scratch.

It’s paradoxical, pricey and porous. If President Barack Obama has his way, it’s about to get a significant overhaul.

Senate Democrats already have released several draft proposals that they hope will expand insurance coverage and control costs. That’s no mean feat. Even many who wish them well doubt that it’s possible.

House Republicans, meanwhile, last week trotted out a competing, though far less detailed, proposal containing their vision for reform.

Interest groups on all sides have begun advertising and “Astroturf” advocacy (fake grass roots) to shape the debate.

It promises to be a confusing summer.