One of our very favorite bloggers is Joe Kristan. Despite the obvious handicap of being an accountant, Joe has insightful and often cutting-edge posts on tax-related issues.
And sometimes about gummint meddling.
In brief, Hawkeye State governor Chet Culver is taking aim at the health insurance market with a variety of problemmatic ideas. One of them seeks to address the challenge of folks coming off group plans and finding little or no joy in the individual marketplace. The Gov's idea is to require carriers to offer cover to folks with pre-existing conditions. Joe correctly adduces that this will serve to increase costs to everyone, especially if carriers are forbidden to rate up such applicants.
I tend to agree, but I'm intrigued by the concept. After all, one of the goals is to get (and keep) more folks "in the system." It's always bothered me that HIPAA does a reasonable job of this when moving from group to group, or even individual to group. But it's silent as to folks going from group to individual cover, and I think that's a problem.
As I mentioned at Joe's, as long as the carrier is able to "rate for the risk," I think this idea has some legs. Some of the Governor's other "solutions" are less attractive, but make for interesting reading.
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