Friday, September 02, 2011

Stupid Government Tricks: Premium Increase Edition

As Bob noted a year ago, HHS Secretary Shecantbeserious seems to have a bit of an internet fetish:

"HHS is proud of their site for all things related to health insurance ... So far, pricing inquiries top the list of requests"

Yup: make it easy for would-be consumers to get competitive quotes on various products, but don't give the actual, you know, prices.

Priceless.

But Kathy's now doubled-down on the stupid:

"[C]onsumers in every state can go to a federally-maintained website to view information explaining many proposed increases in the individual and small group market."

The idea is that interested consumers can check out rate increase requests made by various carriers. Of course, there's nothing they (or Ms Shecantbeserious) can actually do about them. One supposes that this sudden interest in transparency will have some positive effect, although I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that.

If there is anything positive about this, it may be that now consumers can see the truth of our own meme that health care costs drive health insurance costs.

Think Kathy will "get" that?
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