Gorman on SB-217 & Compulsory Insurance
May 1st, 2008 | by Brian T. Schwartz |Last Sunday the Pueblo Chieftain published a commentary on Senate Bill 217 and compulsory insurance by Linda Gorman , Director of the Independence Institute’s Health Care Policy Center. Some highlights:
With Senate Bill 217, which has passed the Colorado Senate and awaits House action, state lawmakers who believe that higher taxes and more spending constitute health care reform have sunk to new depths of legislative trickery. …
SB217 creates a Connector program, “health marts” “through which an individual eligible for the state subsidy may select” one of the state designed “Value Benefit Plans (VBP).” The health insurance offered through VBPs would be designed by a government committee. …
If the governor agrees with the expert recommendations, and he will, SB217 would require that they be submitted to the Legislature on the “third legislative day” of the 2010 session. They then would pass through the Legislature like grass through a goose. People in favor of tax and spend health care reform know that the more voters know the less they like tax and spend reform. Speedy passage limits public debate.
Speedy passage reduces the possibility that people might find out that individual mandates are failing in Massachusetts, where about 20 percent of the uninsured already have been exempted because buying insurance costs them too much. They might be reminded that insurance is not health care, especially when Massachusetts controls costs by cutting payments to doctors, creating a shortage of doctors in the program and ridiculously long waits for care.
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