If the goal of health care reform is just to make insurance companies compete, why does Pres. Obama want to take the massive leap of creating a government run, taxpayer subsidized health plan?
Supporters of the Obama view can’t even agree on the market share of North Carolina’s largest insurer. The Center for American Progress found that Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina has 53 percent of the state’s health insurance business. United Health Care is second with a 20 percent share. Adam Searing, however, claims that BCBS alone has an 82 percent market share, but Searing’s share is based on the assumption that less than half of North Carolina’s 9.2 million residents have private health insurance.
It would be far simpler to turn the 50 different insurance markets into a large national market. Nor would this require creating a government sanctioned exchange providing only insurance products deemed worthy by a small group of people in Washington.
State Sen. Phil Berger has introduced a bill that would allow North Carolinians to purchase insurance from other states. Rep. John Shadegg has introduced a similar bill every session since 1999 that would reach the same goal at a national level. Interstate competition is also a key element in Sen. Jim DeMint’s Health Care Freedom plan.
If the market is as bad as people on the Left claim, there will be even more demand for a public plan in two years. Why not give it a try? Oh, right, because it works.
