Federal Health Board could extend government-controlled insurance
January 2nd, 2009 | by Brian Schwartz |Tom Daschle’s proposed Federal Health Board could regulate health insurance companies such that they are effectively all selling the same government-controlled product. Consider the following from Robert E. Moffit:
While the health board decisions would initially affect enrollees in government health programs, Senator Daschle says that Congress “…could, for example, link the tax exclusion for health insurance that complies with the health board’s recommendation.”
In other words, the Federal Health Board will define what insurance is. The Board is a means to single-payer health insurance, where insurance companies are merely government contractors. They’ll have little room to experiment on their own to figure out what products best meet consumer’s needs. Instead, the “experts in Washington” will design the product. This is bad for consumers. As Barack Obama has stated: “capitalism is great for consumers” when they have “many alternatives,” when customers, “not government bureaucrats … are the judges of what best serves their needs.”
tags: Federal Health Board, Tom Daschle
