The AP reports:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is taking on a crucial new role in the nation’s health care, designing a basic benefits package for millions of privately insured Americans. A framework for the Obama administration was released Friday…
…Until now, designing benefits has been the job of insurers, employers and states. But the new health care law requires insurance companies to provide at least the federally approved package if they want to sell to small businesses, families and individuals through new state markets set to open in 2014…
…”The federal government has never before attempted to define what constitutes essential medical benefits for Americans with private insurance,” said Stephen Finan, a top policy expert for the American Cancer Society.
The questions I have are – why is designing coverage packages the role of insurers, employers, states, or the federal government? Why can’t I design my own healthcare package?
Why are a bunch of faceless bureaucrats ordering me to buy a specific healthcare package that includes coverage for drug rehab or other crap that I absolutely don’t need?
Why are my employers given tax deductions for offering health insurance instead of myself? How did the market become so distorted that buying insurance on my own is more expensive than buying it through my employer?
Why can’t I get a cancer coverage package from an insurance agency based in New Jersey and heart attack coverage from an insurance agency in California? Why can’t I mix and match insurance coverage to meet my own needs and expenses?
The answer to all of those questions is: Because the State hates you. The State is the gun of corporate America. Insurance agencies, like any other private business, absolutely hate free market competition. And insurance agencies, like any other private business, will use their profits to subvert the free market through the use of State sanctioned violence and threats.
The insurance companies are the ones lobbying congress to ram through bills that force people to buy insurance. The insurance companies are the ones lobbying congress to deny cross-state insurance sales. The insurance companies are the ones lobbying congress to mandate as much coverage for every possible disease or malady as they possibly can.
The State is the corporate gun – and the State hates you.
