it's only wrong if YOU do it... hundreds of companies have insurance plans from other states! go figure
Posted on 07/01/2012 6:42:16 AM PDT by jonno
In all the discussion about repealing Obamacare, I haven't seen a lot of discussion about what will fill the solution vacuum once it is defeated.
One issue that keeps coming up is the prohibition against insurance companies selling policies across state lines. Given that increased competition - coupled with availability - generally drives down cost, why is removing this restriction not a first and foremost low-cost solution? Or if this is indeed problem, where are the pitfalls?
Here in Maine, we have many “shall cover” requirements that have driven all but a few insurers out of the market. Allowing people to purchase ‘a la carte’ coverage, and set up a national pool for covering the rest at a premium price works for me. Why should we all have to pay for AIDS coverage for the sodomites?
Once you see this clearly, the activity in Washington becomes much more understandable.
Imagine that. The interstate commerce clause has been used to restrain and control insurance companies, even though those same companies are prohibited from engaging in interstate commerce.
It’s not wrong, it’s simply illegal. Making it legal, and tort reform would go a long way toward reducing health insurance cost, and improving it, as well.
I would offer this analysis. The limit of inter-state insurance...makes as much sense as limiting the production and sale of orange juice...to only the state that grows the oranges. The same logic would work for states with natural gas....they should only be able to sell their natural gas within that state.
I agree. No other explanation for the current mess.
So you end up with CA rules (most strict) and higher costs for the customer.
Same as what has happened with petroleum products a different blend for some states and higher overall costs.
I agree. No other explanation for the current mess.
NOthing! Just repeal the whole damn thing and start over. RIGHT NOW, people HAVE healthcare. The "poor" have healthcare, the indigent. THERE IS NO CRISIS! Don't do it piecemeal, repeal the whole evil law.
The only real reason states do not allow selling insurance across state lines is that they benefit by taking in surcharges and permits and the like on what they control. Many states have only two or three insurance companies licensed to sell insurance in their states. But there is a strong argument that the barriers should come down, thereby expanding choice, increasing competition, lowering cost (and thus covering more people), and also enabling people who move to take their insurance with them more easily . . . but that involves other issues. If they would allow small businesses, including those who have only a handful of employees, to pool together to form groups, then that, too would increase coverage for those without. Almost everyone would then have access. Since group insurance cannot discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions, it takes care of that problem for most people, too. And since insurance companies would benefit from all this, Congress, as a trade-off, could simply ban them form engaging in such discrimination even for those purchasing individual coverage. The Republicans tried to pass this group approach some years ago and the Dems blocked it, because what they want is European-style socialized medicine, with everyone beholden to the IRS.
As in all economic paradoxes you must follow the money. The answer is usually rooted in how does it benefit politician for things to stay as they are.
The State of Ohio has an insurance commission. Ohio Department of Insurance
It is their job to make sure that the companies that insure citizens in the state of Ohio are solvent and can pay the claims of their customers. They also regulate the insurance companies in other respects.
Naturally if there is a commission regulating a profit making enterprise there are political palms to be greased by lobbyist representing that industry.
Not to say that there is bribery going on here but state politicians need campaign funds just like national politicians.
That’s how Congress has always controlled the state and business.
For example, the 2nd Amendment is universal, but one state's conceal carry permit isn't necessarily accepted across state lines, or same sex marriage is legal in some states, but not recognized in all.
Plus, states might be protecting their state's business as well as their citizens, from unfair competition.
Not all insurance companies are national or international companies, so you have to take what one company sold you to another company and force them to give you the same deal as the first?
Would that be like transferring a home loan from the house you sold in one state to the house you just bought in another?
Or more like carrying a credit card everywhere you go?
Making it an interstate market means slapping aside all the insurance laws in every state and replacing it with a federal marketplace.
Has anything ever been improved by congressional and executive regulation? No. It's always been made worse, and the costs have always increased as a result of it. If you are above the Arctic circle, you might find it very helpful to have a requirement in your plan that might cover light therapy. That's important for Alaska. How many in the other 49..err, 56 states would need that coverage in their plans? None?
Moreso, the federal government NEEDS this interstate marketplace to make ObamaTaxCare work. They need to be able to monkey around with everything so they can exempt their friends and punish their enemies. If the insurance boards of the 50 states can wipe aside their regulations, then they loose their sticks and their carrots.
Finally, let's be honest. Health HMO insurance is the number one reason why healthcare costs continue to spiral out of control. The cost of health care is hidden from the consumer, it requires armies of form processors to handle filings for reimbursement, and puts dozens of people between the consumer and their doctors. It is the worst solution to health care, and by making a national market for it and regulating it on the federal level, it will simply make things even worse.
Two reasons:
It will lower costs and lower costs is seen as a dilution of Federal power over the People.
To do it now might delay the ultimate goal of consolidating the power in the Federal government dictatorship.
it's only wrong if YOU do it... hundreds of companies have insurance plans from other states! go figure
THAT is the problem. They DO NOT want cost to go down. If it did, they would not have been able to ram this barrycare up our collective a$$'s.
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