It is very important to rally on Saturday in defense of American freedom, and especially health care freedom. Arizona’s tea partiers did an amazing job during the Battle of August, but we are still very far from getting good health care reforms out of Congress. In his speech last night, President Barack Obama mentioned that there are “details that need to be ironed out” in the legislation before Congress. That was one of the very few pieces of unadulterated truth in his entire speech. Among the many “details” that still need to be “ironed out”:

• Obama claims that his plan would preserve private options, but the economic reality is that federal insurance mandates would eliminate low-cost private insurance options such as HSAs, and federal price controls would eliminate private comprehensive insurance.

• Under the proposed individual mandate (which Obama opposed during his primary fight with Hillary Clinton), health insurance consumers would have no choice but to pay for a high-priced “private” plan with coverage that has been dictated by Congress and federal health bureaucrats.

• Despite Obama’s assurances, federal mandates will incentivize individuals to join the government option, and Congress--which is addicted to bailouts in every industry--will come under increasing pressure to use taxpayer money to prop up the government option.

• Despite a lot of rhetoric about using competition to control costs, Obama and Congressional Democrats have refused to look at the one of the most promising market-based policy options, which is for Congress to allow individuals to buy cheaper health insurance plans available in other states.

• In his speech, Obama claimed to support tort reform, but instead of pushing to include tort reform in the current health reform legislation, he is handing the ball to HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius--someone who used to lobby for the trial lawyers!

• Obama has yet to specify exactly how the government (more accurately, the taxpayer) is going to pay for the $2 trillion in program costs during the first 13 years of the program (as calculated by the Congressional Budget Office).