Monday’s meeting between President Obama and representatives of the health care industry is part of an ongoing process of trying to strike a deal between government and industry over how to reform health care. Notably absent from that equation is the most important party: health care consumers.

Health care reform should be about empowering patients, not about how much increased government control the health care industry is willing to accept.

Moreover, any promised health care savings that came out of yesterday’s meeting are likely to prove illusory in the face of increased government regulation, subsidies and interference that will almost certainly drive up the cost (and decrease the quality) of health care.