Kentucky’s Insurance Commisioner has lately voiced an opinion that any 2-year-old who are denied its toy would feel envious since the health insurers have decided not to issue new “child-only” policies many days before parts of the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act become law on September 23.

This is all because Sharon Clark does not understand that health insurers can’t raise taxes or just print new money to plug budget shortfalls. They must earn profits to continue staying in business.

She focuses on a statement in which she professes distress about “the effect this will have on the Kentuckians, particularly children with pre-existing health conditions.”

Peter Suderman, associate editor of Reason magazine, writes, “But it’s indicative of one of the new health care law’s fundamental contradictions: Insurers are expected to both abide by new rules, which could prove costly, and not significantly change their prices or services in response to them.”

Suderman also addresses the cycle of such unintended consequences: “That would drive up expenses for child-only policies, which would push more people out of the insurance pool, which would further drive up coverage costs, and so on and so forth spinning faster and faster until the out of control merry-go-round has thrown off just about everyone.”