Submitted to the Denver Business Journal last week in response to Governor Bill Ritter’s signing HB 1008 into law:
House Bill 1008 poses great threats: hurting women, boosting insurer’s profits, or leaving men uninsured. Now law, the Bill requires health insurers to charge men and women the same premiums (DBJ, March 29). Increasing men’s premiums could boost insurer profits, but might make policies unaffordable for men – especially those who have lost their jobs.
If instead insurers charge women less, women suffer. To maintain adequate profit margins, insurers would skimp on benefits that women like. Or they could stop issuing policies to women altogether. If politicians respond by mandating benefits and require insurers to issue policies to women, insurers can skimp elsewhere: more claim denials, bureaucracy, and lousy customer service.
What about women who would pay more for better quality and service? Tough. HB 1008 bans this.
To lower insurance premiums, politicians should remove barriers to competition. For example, Cindy Acree’s HB 1163 would allow Coloradans to buy more affordable policies sold in other states.
For more on insurance price controls, see my article at Pajamas Media on health insurance slumlords.
