Stop Calling Them “Consumer Protections”
This is Michael Cannon, writing at Kaiser Health News:
At the same time Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius was threatening to bankrupt insurers who claim ObamaCare is increasing premiums by more than 1 percent, her own employees estimated that one of the law’s regulations — the requirement to purchase unlimited annual coverage — will increase some people’s premiums by 7 percent or more when fully implemented. A Connecticut insurer estimated that just the provisions taking effect last year would increase some premiums by 20-30 percent…
The ban on discriminating against children with pre-existing conditions has caused insurers to stop selling child-only policies in dozens of states. The dependent-coverage mandate was cited as one of the reasons spurring a Service Employees International Union local in New York City to eliminate coverage for 6,000 dependent children…
ObamaCare now forces insurers to spend no more than 20 percent of revenues — 15 percent for large employers — on administrative expenses… [This] rule spurred Principal Financial Group to stop selling health insurance before it even took effect, leaving nearly 1 million consumers to find new coverage and threatening their continuity of care.
Good post. How do we tell the regulators, “Please stop protecting me?”
To be honest, these regulations (and many like them) are not consumer protections. Rather, the new regulations are mostly intended as cross-subsidies for very specific constituencies — the cost of which is borne by the healthy masses (who are supposed to comply without complaint). I’m a firm believer in protecting consumers. But more often than not so-called “consumer advocates” tend to advocate for special interests other than the consumer.
I’m with you. I don’t feel protected.
Okay, I’ll stop calling them consumer protections.