Writing in Health Care News, Dr. Sanjit Bagchi has an excellent overview of the unintended consequences of state regulations on health insurance. By raising the cost of insurance and constricting consumer choice, such regulations lead some younger, healthier workers to swear off health insurance altogether, making insurance pools older and riskier. Bagchi highlights new research on state insurance regs:
The study, An Examination of State Non-Group and Small-Group Health Insurance Regulations,
by Anthony T. Lo Sasso, reviews the current upswing in state
initiatives that purport to improve citizens’ access to affordable
health care.Massachusetts implemented a program in 2006 to eliminate uninsurance
in the state through a combination of policies. In early 2007,
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) introduced a similar
proposal. Illinois, Pennsylvania, and several other states are
currently considering programs of their own.While the proposals are making headlines for their goals of
universal health insurance, Lo Sasso’s study points out, “it seems to
be largely forgotten in health policy circles and the general
consciousness that insurance of all kinds is fundamentally about
protection from financial disaster and that the causal link between
health insurance and health is tenuous at best.”
In the same issue, health care economist John Goodman offers 10 steps to insuring the uninsured, including Medicaid reforms, tax changes, deregulation, and state experimentation.
