Archive for Tag “discrimination”

In defense of health insurance discrimination

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 by Don Watkins

ambulanceOne of the ugliest spectacles in the push for ObamaCare has been the demonization of the health insurance industry. Nancy Pelosi went so far as to call them “villains”. Obama has been a bit more circumspect, suggesting only that they are not honest.

There are plenty of real problems with health insurance today. Many are frustrated by the ever-increasing cost of health insurance, the seemingly impossible task of figuring out what their insurance covers, the fear of losing their job and with it their insurance. But as my colleague Jeff Scialabba has been pointing out, these sorts of problems are the result of government interference in the health insurance market. The less-regulated life insurance market, for example, does not have spiraling costs, miles of bureaucratic red tape, or a pervasive employer-sponsored system tying people to their jobs.

But there is another category of charges leveled at health insurance companies that is not legitimate. These complaints brand insurance companies as evil because they engage in an array of discriminatory behaviors, which ObamaCare promises to end. The Baucus bill (PDF here), for instance, contains guaranteed issue and modified community rating provisions. This means that insurance companies will be forced to insure everyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and must charge everyone in the same age range identical premiums. The idea is that treating different consumers differently is unfair.

But in actual fact, it is eliminating health insurance discrimination that is unfair. Read the rest of this entry »

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