A national market in health insurance
August 28th, 2008 | by Brian Schwartz |Grace-Marie Turner makes a good case for it in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:
Much to our surprise, the Census Bureau reported yesterday that the number of people in the U.S. with health insurance actually increased by 3.6 million last year. That’s the good news. The bad news is that nearly three million of them got their coverage through government programs.
The slide toward a government-dominated, taxpayer-supported health sector will continue unless the 45.7 million Americans who don’t have insurance now are given more opportunities to buy private coverage.
States could help by lightening their regulatory burdens to encourage greater competition for more attractive and affordable coverage. The federal government needs to do its part by updating today’s tax policies to better fit a mobile, 21st-century economy.
A new study by University of Minnesota researchers Stephen Parente and Roger Feldman shows that Congress could boost by more than 12 million the number of people who have health insurance without spending taxpayer dollars. The change required is to allow people to buy health insurance across state lines, so they can shop for less expensive policies.
Read the rest here.
The moral case for allowing us to buy an insurance policy that meets the regulations of another state regulatory agency is that politicians have no right to prohibit free trade between consenting adults. The relationship between a patient and insurer is a private matter between consenting adults, and politicians have no right to interfere. Patients have the right and responsibility to seek the health insurance plan that is best for them and their family, not best for politicians who pander to special interests.
tags: community rating, mandated benefits
