Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Paul Revere, but not Robin Hood, Pt.2 -- The "Credit Card" Brick Road

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Robert goes on to explain the significance of this “less-noticed move” on how individuals will purchase this market-based private health insurance. As John McCain phrases it "families should be able to purchase health insurance nationwide, across state lines." This is a very dramatic change, Mr. Gordon suggests. Currently “insurance companies need to follow the laws [and regulations] of the states where they sell individual insurance plans, just as credit-card companies did before 1978”. In order to sell health insurance in a given state, these companies must abide by state-mandated regulations. These are designed, primarily, to protect the consumer for things like gouging those with poor health. It is important to note that not all states have these regulations in place. In a forthcoming paper for the Center for American Progress, Stephanie Lewis points out "These rules may increase premiums for healthy folks, but they also give people with pre-existing conditions a decent chance to afford health insurance in the market for individually purchased policies”.

McCain addresses this issue with an indirect twist. He presents that all these state regulations on health insurance do is to "prevent the best companies, with the best plans and lowest prices, from making their product available to any American who wants it." To no surprise, details are sketchy, but McCain supporters “say that he favors an approach, endorsed by President Bush and championed by McCain's Arizona colleague John Shadegg” allowing circumvention of state-level health insurance regulation, as Robert explains. Robert has pressed for official comment but, of course, had no luck.

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