Politicians for potholes & expensive insurance
May 13th, 2008 | by Brian T. Schwartz |Previous posts on legislation mentioned here: SB 217 (here , here, here, here), HB 1389 (here, here, here).
Linda Gorman shows how politicians support potholes and expensive insurance in her latest article at the Independence Institute’s Health Care Policy Center (also at StateHouseCall.org). Some excerpts:
Colorado legislators say they want to fix the roads and cut health care costs. What they actually do is divert money from roads to increase health care costs. …
To see how this works in miniature, consider Senate Bill 217. It creates yet another Commission to study raising Colorado health care costs by importing the failing Massachusetts health care reform plan. … this Commission will cost taxpayers at least $519,300 over the next two years. Part of that money, an estimated $15,900 in FY 2008-9, will be diverted from funds that would otherwise be used to fix the roads.
If the $519,300 were earmarked for roads rather than yet another health care study, the Legislature could liberate almost 5,200 drivers from Governor Ritter’s proposed $100 car tax. …
Another of the bills that takes money from roads to increase health care costs is HB 1389, a bill giving the state Department of Insurance carte blanche to put price controls on health insurance. …
If the state is spending more time on rate reviews, insurers will have to spend more time on defending themselves against them. This increases the cost of selling insurance in Colorado. And when insurer costs go up, people who buy health insurance either pay more or go without.
In other words, roads will not be repaired so that the Department of Insurance can spend $419,583 to increase health insurance premiums for Colorado health insurance buyers.
If the legislature had simply left health insurers alone, almost 6,210 drivers could have been liberated from Governor Ritter’s $100 car tax and Colorado residents would be paying less for health insurance.
If actions speak louder than words, it is clear that the people currently in charge of Colorado government think that road repair is less important than repetitive health care studies and increases unnecessary regulation that increases the cost of health insurance.
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One Response to “Politicians for potholes & expensive insurance”
By Civil Sense on May 13, 2008 | Reply
Brian:
Thank you for bringing this article to everyone’s attention. It is amazing how these bait-and-switch tactics are so commonplace amongst politicians. Keep up the good work.