Senator Collins’ Health Insurance Strategy:
Fix it Until it Breaks!
By: David Deschesne
Editor/Publisher,
Fort Fairfield Journal, November 8, 2017
U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Health Committee, recently joined a group of 24 senators – 12 Republicans and 12 Democrats led by Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) – who support bipartisan legislation purported to “help stabilize premiums and access to insurance in individual health insurance markets.”
According to the propaganda released by Collins’ office, she said, “This legislation would help stabilize the markets while maintaining protections for people with preexisting conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, and cancer. The bipartisan agreement will prevent premiums from going up by an average of 20 percent, preserve subsidies that help very low-income people afford their out-of-pocket costs, dissuade more insurers from fleeing the market, and provide more flexibility for states to experiment and innovate.”
There’s a lot to analyze here in order to cut through the propaganda. I submit government meddling with the marketplace, in this case health insurance, is what has caused all the problems to begin with.
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“Politicians know they can continually be elected by putting out propaganda puff piece legislation like this, which promises milk and apples for everyone without mentioning the real intent is mass starvation.”
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Not many people are alive today who experienced the disaster of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of the 1930s where government attempted to fix prices of commodities outside of the normal market drivers of supply and demand. The end result was a disaster. Farmers ended up either not being able to afford to grow the food or were paid by government not to grow it at all in order to tinker with the supply. The failed state, Venezuela recently tried this experiment and have failed miserably. The people there have been reduced to empty store shelves and eating dogs, cats, pigeons and whatever else they can find roaming the streets and countryside. This is always the end result of government interference with business, whether it’s food or health care.
One of the key selling points of this proposed bill is that it’s “bipartisan” which means it’s equally supported by both Republicans and Democrats. Somehow that’s supposed to imply that it’s a good proposal and everyone will do fine if it’s passed. The true end result of bipartisanship is a much more rapid, efficient and effective race toward failure and disaster than there would have been if someone resisted it.
Senator Collins claims the bill will maintain protections for people with life threatening diseases, prevent premiums from increasing, entice health insurers to stay in business and preserve taxpayer funding of premiums for those who can’t afford them. In short, she thinks she and her illustrious compatriots in the Senate will be able to make insurance companies continue to cover expensive treatments, not raise their rates to cover those costs and keep them in business even if they’re no longer making enough money to pay their bills (unless more expensive taxpayer funded subsidies are received).
As an aside, I don’t want to be mistaken here. I am not defending health insurance companies’ exorbitantly high salaries paid to their directors or their lush and extravagant dinners at posh vacation resorts. Those are certainly costs that can be cut so more of the money can be used for the purposes they were originally intended for. But, health insurers are businesses and businesses exist to make money for their investors. They are not doing their work as a hobby. So, when some “bipartisan” bill comes along that claims it will increase service, reduce rates, dissuade health insurers from going out of business and promise to preserve taxpayer funding out of a now $20+ trillion national debt, you have to stop and think for longer than an average Senator’s attention span – which is usually less than three seconds toward anyone who isn’t a lobbyist.
Let me simplify this bill with a simple analogy of a lawn care business.
Suppose ABC Lawn Care is in business to cut grass and do yard maintenance. They set a price to do an average sized yard, which most people in their market area can pay. Now, along comes the city government who mandates all yards must be maintained to certain specific standards and that everyone must hire a lawn maintenance contractor to do the work; anyone who doesn’t do so will be subjected to a fine assessed on their annual tax bill (don’t laugh, there are some U.S. cities and towns who have this arrangement in place already).
Now, under this situation there will be some in society who can afford to pay for the service and some who can’t. With a bill similar to the health insurance bill Senator Collins is supporting, ABC Lawn Care would be forced to continue do yard work and expand its services, not increase its rates to cover those additional expenses and prevent them from leaving the lawn care business when it is no longer profitable. It would then require the taxpayers to not only continue paying for their lawn care but the lawn care of those in the rest of the city who can’t afford to.
In the end, everyone ends up a loser. First, ABC Lawn Care will have increased work load and have to hire more people and purchase more equipment but will not be able to raise rates so they’ll have to work at little or no profit, thus negating any motivation to stay in business. They will also be “dissuaded” from going out of business. (In Venezuela, if you aren’t turning a profit the government “dissuades” you from going out of business by threatening you with jail time).
Secondly, those in society who can afford their own lawn care are burdened with the cost of their own lawn plus increased taxes to pay for other people’s lawn care.
Third, the whole of society suffers since the lawn care company isn’t making an adequate profit, they can’t have the right amount of staff or equipment upgrades to remain relevant and effective. Eventually those lawn maintenance service companies will simply not be able to provide the level of service that the law requires people to purchase and the entire populace begins to suffer from inadequate lawn care—which is punishable by a government fine.
The only things government is really good at are: collecting taxes, spending other people’s money and putting people in prison. That’s it. They do nothing else well, at all. The mindset behind Senator Collins and her cohorts is to simply keep fixing the health insurance industry until it’s broke—both financially and functionally.
Of course, that’s the end goal; to drive health insurance companies out of business and create a single payer government run health care system that provides “free” health care to everyone, similar to the model currently being used in Canada.
Under the single payer model, the government collects health insurance premiums in the form of taxes, sets the costs hospitals may charge for their service and even limits how much a doctor can earn in a year. The end result of this system—as most Canadians will tell you—is long waiting lines for health care, surgeries, etc. substandard care and poorly-trained doctors because all of the really good ones went to another country where they can earn what they’re actually worth.
Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that the U.S. Constitution—which is still the Supreme Law of the Land—doesn’t even grant jurisdiction or authority for the U.S. Congress to legislate on health care, health insurance or any other private business in the U.S. to begin with. All in Congress swore an oath to uphold that law, but must have had their fingers crossed behind their backs because as soon as they step foot in office they instantly begin breaking the law by passing legislation on matters for which they have no legal authority or jurisdiction.
But, they’re counting on the average American to not understand the issues and have designed public school education to inhibit any ability to critically think and examine an issue.
Politicians know they can continually be elected by putting out propaganda puff piece legislation like this, which promises milk and apples for everyone without mentioning the real intent is mass starvation.
