Thursday, June 10, 2010

Democrats Create an Insurance “Train Wreck”

From this morning’s Boston Globe comes a story of an e-mail sent by Massachusetts’ official charged with monitoring insurer solvency, who noted in a message earlier this year that “artificial price caps” will lead to a “train wreck” in the insurance industry by undermining carriers’ financial stability.  He also noted that Massachusetts’ action to force companies to offer insurance, and dictating the price of same to those companies, “was taken against my objections and without including me in the conversation.”

The e-mail from Massachusetts – where Governor Patrick has attacked insurance companies to distract attention from the skyrocketing costs associated with the Commonwealth’s pricey health care overhaul – offers a preview of things to come nationwide under the federal health law’s new rate review provisions.  This controversy should not surprise any observer – Vice President admitted in March that the Administration wanted “to control the insurance companies” once the law passed.  In other words, Democrats intend to use the rate review process to undermine companies’ solvency, thereby regulating insurance companies out of business and leaving the government controlling the entire health care sector.  A “train wreck,” indeed.