Price controls ensure health care insurance companies will drop coverage

I can say this with complete certainty. If President Obama gets his way and institutes price controls to “ensure” health care premiums don’t increase “too much”, insurers will simply drop out of the market.

And that’s exactly what President Obama and many Democrats want. If insurance companies can not make a reasonable profit, they will simply choose to not offer coverage. When that happens – and it will – the federal government will immediately step forward with a single payer program.

They have been telling us for years they want to move to a single payer system to get the insurance company “middle men” out of the way. Of course, the new middle man will be the federal government and a bunch of bureaucrats, but they don’t tell you that part.

States continue to add mandates to coverage every year and these mandates cost money. You may think there is no understanding at all in Washington, D.C. when it comes to basic business practices, but to the contrary, they know if they push mandates and complain about costs at the same time they will get their opportunity to take over heath care completely.

Michelle Malkin has a post today about the onslaught of price controls.

Obama’s proposal to be released today goes for broke. His plan will probably cost even more money than anything Congress-critters have yet to come up with. This will not be “moving to the center”, it will be a hard turn towards socialist medicine.

Unbelievable…

The new proposal, which a White House official described Sunday night, would give Sebelius new authority to oversee, and potentially block, rate increases that are deemed unfair. It would be based, at least in part, on legislation initially proposed last week by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

The legislation would create a rate board, called the Health Insurance Rate Authority, which would broadly determine what increases are reasonable and justifiable. The seven-member board would have consumer, industry and medical representatives, as well as experts in health economics.

A top official said Sebelius would conduct an annual review of premium increases, and could work with state insurance officials to deny increases that were seen as excessive.

Let me remind readers again. Insurance companies can not and will not offer health plans in your states if your state legislature mandates coverage and they are unable to make a profit.

AJStrata at Strata Sphere blog writes…

President Obama’s first term was supposed to herald the end of all this fringe fighting, this hyper partisan zero-sum game. He campaigned as the uniter. But in reality he appears to be the last of the hyper-partisan hangover from the 1960’s and 1970’s. He refuses to see America as anything other than his sand box, for him to shape into what ever form he deems proper. His fringe superiority complex is just like all the ones you see on the far left.

Update:  Allahpundit at Hot Air pointing out the same thing I did this morning. They’re going to starve the beast. Also, Steve at Sweetness & Light commenting on some details of Obama’s bullet-point proposal. The administration only provides an overview and no detailed legislation.