Yet another reason you will not be able to keep your own health insurance

After a slight diversion into the Cap and Trade fiasco, I’m back to Sen. Dodd’s (D. Ct.) Affordable Health Choices Act.  From earlier posts, you already know that keeping the insurance you like may be difficult because if it doesn’t get the government’s “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval, a tax will be imposed on you to “enhance” your switch to Obamacare.

However, from the language of the following sections of the proposed bill, I’m beginning to think that you will not need to be “enhanced” to join Obamacare.  Your insurance company will just disappear.

Section 2702(a) of the proposed legislation provides,

Subject to subsections (b) through (e), each health insurance issuer that offers health coverage in the individual or group market in a State must accept every employer and individual in the State that applies for coverage. [emphasis supplied]

Before moving to the substance of my post I have to point out that there are no subsections (c), (d), or (e) of 2702!  Perhaps someone in Connecticut could ask Senator Dodd about that, or, perhaps, this is just a “pop quiz” for all of us to just fill in the blanks.  (Please go to the link, and to page 9, line 6, which is the beginning of  Section 2702…it is only 21 lines long.  Can anyone find a subsection (c), (d), or (e) in Section 2702?)

Section 2701(a) provides,

With respect to the premium charged by a health insurance issuer for health insurance,…(2) such  rate shall not vary by health-status related factors

Coupling these sections results in the following: an insurance company must accept you if you apply, and the company can’t charge you a higher premium than anyone else in the plan, no matter how bad your health is.

This is more than lunacy.  It would be like telling the auto insurance industry that it must accept all who apply, and, by the way, you can’t charge the guy with 12 DUI’s any more than you can charge the guy who has a 20 year record of safe driving.  Or telling the casualty insurance industry, you must accept all who apply, and, by the way, you can’t charge the folks who live in hurricane prone areas of the country any more then you charge the folks who live in South Dakota.

Why will this legislation cause private insurers to disappear?  Here’s how.

Let’s say you are an individual who has your own individual policy with “Good Health Insurance Company”, and you like what you have.  If this legislation is approved, let’s say 6000 people apply for coverage with Good Health, and, all 6000 have a serious illness of some sort requiring the expenditure of a great amount of money to cover the costs of their illnesses.

Good Health is required to accept these 6000 applicants, and, it can’t charge them a premium any higher than what you pay.  The only way for Good Health to cover the costs of the medical treatment of these 6000 people is to raise your premiums.  This will continue, and more and more insureds of Good Health will be forced to drop their coverage with Good Health due to the cost.  Soon, either Good Health will will cease to exist, or, you, too, will be forced to leave due to the ever increasing premiums.

What’s left?  Crummy, rationed Obamacare.

Please, Mr. President, don’t mislead us about keeping our current plan if we like it.  You have endorsed legislation that, for a multitude of reasons, will force all of us out of our current plans.  America’s health care is too important… we deserve honesty.

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

4 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on June 28, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    Let's see: they've thrown out contracts, now they want to remove the ability of insurers to ensure that you are made responsible for your own bad decisions?

    Gee, I guess that won't make premiums increase!

    Is this just moral relativism applied to the insurance industry? Or has the risk free society the liberals love simply been redefined to mean that there is no cost for the risks you take?

    If Obama were actually planning to destroy this country, he couldn't do much more than he is doing now.

    Is the Manchurian candidate now the Kenyan candidate?



  2. Dimsdale on June 28, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    Didn't the media actually pay people to do what SOS is doing?

    Once upon a time……?



    • Jeff S on June 29, 2009 at 5:23 am

      Used to long time ago….like 6 months ago!! Now they need the money in their budgets to, extensively, cover "Date Night" with the Obamas



    • SoundOffSister on June 29, 2009 at 10:59 am

      Thanks, Dims. Should I ask my brother for a raise!



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