Saturday, January 22, 2011

It's going to be a long two years

National Review's The Corner

[Fred]  Upton [Republican, Michigan] is also co-sponsor, with Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), of legislation that would allow for the purchase of health insurance across state lines, a key component of the GOP health-care platform. “Why is it that you can buy car insurance across state lines and not health insurance?”

Just because you see that gekko add in every state doesn't mean you're buying car insurance from the same gekko. You can't buy car insurance across US state lines, as a cursory online trawl for insurance regulation will show.  You have to have insurance in the state where you live.  If you try living in one state with insurance from another, it's illegal.  And it's a big mess when there's a crash involving cars with different state-mandated policies.   

In short, in the USA, insurance regulation is a matter for states, not the federal government.  Yet it's the supposedly anti-federal Republicans who want to use federal law to crash, if you will, through state policies.  The Republican vision for healthcare is that everyone could have New Hampshire style auto insurance for healthcare. Meaning, possibly none.

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