Will Anthem act like a slumlord health insurer if the CO Division of Insurance forbids them from increasing rates? The Denver Post reports that Colorado authorities are still deliberating about whether to permit Anthem to increase premiums. It's taken as a given that government officials have a right to interfere ...
Instead of more political meddling in insurance markets like guaranteed issue and community rating, the following free-market-oriented reforms would help alleviate the problems with pre-existing conditions. From John Goodman at the Health Affairs Blog:
Encourage Portable Insurance.
Allow Special Health Savings Accounts for the Chronically Ill.
Allow Special Needs Health Insurance.
Allow Health ...
This is the provocative title of Dr. Paul Hsieh's recent article in Pajamas Media. It begins:
Suppose our government declared that everyone had the “right” to a nice steak dinner. The government would require restaurants to sell $50 steak dinners to all comers. But to keep ...
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 ...
From David Hogberg in Investors Business Daily:
...It is worthwhile to take a comprehensive look at the freedoms we will lose [with health "reform" passed].
Of course, the overhaul is supposed to provide us with security. But it will result in skyrocketing insurance costs and physicians ...
My latest article at Pajamas Media begins:
If you dislike your health insurer now, just wait until politicians impose price controls that make your insurer act like a slumlord. Expect worse customer service, skimpier plans, and more claim denials.
Price controls on rental properties encourage ...
he Wall Street Journal reminds us:
Natural experiments are rare in politics, but few are as instructive as the prototype for ObamaCare that Massachusetts set in motion in 2006. The bills for "universal coverage" are now coming due, and it appears the state political class is prepared to ...
Some reactions to president Obama's health care reform proposal released February 22, 2010:
Keith Hennessey has a summary and analysis of possible political strategies behind it:
Somebody in the Administration put a lot of work into this proposal. It is extremely detailed, and it reads like a best effort to find ...
President Obama has wants empower the federal government to forbid insurers from increasing their premiums more than the authorities allow. Two reactions to this part of the president's health care proposal:
Don Boudreaux, Cafe Hayek on price controls:
What cool adventures await us if Mr. Obama succeeds in giving Uncle ...
A Cato podcast on the insurance company price controls in the House and Senate health care bills:
As I summarized in a previous article, when government forces insurers to issue policies to high-risk customers (guaranteed issue), but to also charge the same premiums as they to lower-risk customers, bad things happen:
Insurers ...
