The current national debate on health care is indeed full of misinformation – most of which is originating from Capitol Hill and the White House. It will take more than one column in this paper to flush out the truth of what is actually in play here so consider this a first installment.
Spin-doctors decided early on that the proper catch phrase to sell the American people something they didn’t need was “Health Care Reform.” Reform to out of control costs, reform to premiums, etc. However the spin-doctors misjudged and now the spin phrase is “Insurance Reform.”
Spin-doctors are an especially ruinous invention in public relations and politics. Unfortunately, journalism schools have not taught students how to deal with them. Reporting has long been just that, a report of what happened and what was said at any given event. Spin-doctors seized on this passive behavior and essentially sent everyone out front with “talking points” that usually had no basis to the questions raised. Reporters dutifully reported the non-answers anyway and have all but destroyed their own credibility in the process.
A case in point is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who stumped that insurance companies were “villains.” It was the villainous insurance companies denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and all sorts of other evil deeds. The phrase made headlines and news reports across the country. But, Pelosi is lying.
Something reporters didn’t report and most of the general public doesn’t understand is what an insurance company covers; who it can deny coverage to and even the rate ranges they can charge is established in law by state legislators or guided by regulation via state insurance commissions and commissioners. In other words the current state of insurance, whether it is great or not so great, is a purely political creation by politicians – just like Pelosi.
It is the state political class that decrees pre-existing conditions need not be covered. In exchange, most states extract a premium tax, portions of which may be used to fund an “assigned risk” insurer of last resort for the aforementioned pre-existing condition afflicted. You can understand why insurance companies and government favor this approach. Who wants to be forced to sell fire insurance to a homeowner too cheap to buy it every year but comes rushing in to purchase it the day after the house burns down? Or auto insurance the day after the car’s been totaled? But at the end of the day, it’s the politicians call, not the insurance companies.
The same goes for the level of coverage mandated by politicians. Comparing rates for the same insurance from state to state best exposes this disparity. Rates range as high as $700 a month for individual coverage in Massachusetts to lows of $100 a month in Utah and Wisconsin (Louisiana is in the $300 range). The difference is what state politicians have mandated into their respective plans. Differences that can be quite eccentric like aromatherapy, accupressure, etc. The latest government mandate going around is requiring mental health coverage limits equal to medical coverage limits. Granted, mental health coverage is important but in most cases psychiatrists and psychologists decree a patient cured when the money runs out. No one ever seems to get better under the limit. These mandates force millions of people to overpay for basic coverage which is all most people will ever need.
The discrepancy in state premiums is the impetus of movements to allow health insurance to be bought across state lines. Enacting that one measure would solve the affordability issue for most of the American people and would cost the government a very efficient zero.
As you can see, health care insurance has problems because of imprudent government involvement and meddling (lobbying) by special interests yanking politician’s chains.
Inexpensive health insurance with wide coverage still exists in spite of so-called spiraling increases in health care costs. Those increases, by the way, are not because health care procedures are any more expensive than before – it’s because there is so much more to buy. But you can have access to all the new technology and pharmaceuticals for $100 a month – if you live in a state where politicians treated health insurance regs and legislation responsibly.
Most states failed that test.
So now a so-called problem – which is due solely to government intervention – can now be solved by complete and total government intervention. So sayeth the feds.
Are you ready for health care delivered with the compassion of the IRS and the efficiency of FEMA?