Cheaper Health Insurance
- From: "Unpleasant Truth" <no.one@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:54:18 -0700
Cheaper Health Insurance
A little competition can go a long way.
Monday, July 25, 2005 12:01 a.m.
Last week the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill that
could dramatically reduce the ranks of the uninsured and spur general
economic growth--all without costing a dime to the Treasury.
The idea behind the legislation, sponsored by GOP Representative John
Shadegg of Arizona, is disarmingly simple: Allow Americans to buy health
insurance from vendors in any one of the 50 states.
Right now Americans who aren't lucky enough to get insurance from large
employers or poor enough to qualify for Medicaid find themselves at the
mercy of the legislators and insurance commissioners of the state in which
they happen to live. This can be OK in states that exercise this
regulatory function judiciously. But in others, the young and working poor
find themselves effectively priced out of the market by special-interest
regulations dressed up as consumer protections.
New York requires every insurance policy sold there to cover podiatry.
Acupuncture coverage is mandated in 11 states, massage therapy in four,
osteopathy in 24, and chiropractors in 47. There are an estimated 1,800 or
so such insurance "mandates" across the country, and the costs add up. "It
is always the providers asking for the mandate; it is never the consumer,"
says health policy guru John Goodman, who has testified before
legislatures considering such rules.
What's more, states like New Jersey and New York add two more
ultra-expensive requirements: "Guaranteed issue" allows people to wait
till they are sick and then buy insurance; "community rating" prevents
insurers from charging different prices to people of different ages and
health status. These may sound like compassionate ideas, until you realize
they make insurance so expensive that millions of people are exposed to
financial ruin because they aren't allowed to buy basic policies focused
on catastrophic costs.
How expensive? A 2004 study by eHealthInsurance.com found that a typical
insurance policy ($2,000 deductible, 20% co-insurance) for a family of
four could be had for as little in as $172 per month in a reasonably
regulated locality like Kansas City, Missouri. But in New York that
family's only option--managed care--would run $840 per month, and in New
Jersey family policies run a whopping $1,200-plus. We bet Democratic
Representative Frank Pallone's constituents in New Jersey would be
interested in his view that insurance in his state is only "slightly" more
expensive than elsewhere.
For the rest, go to
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007011
.
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