Once again, the moral is the practical.
An op-ed in today's published Rocky Mountain News (apparently it is not on-line) entitled "Health Care on the Mend," by former State Senate Majority Leader Mark Hillman asserts that Colorado Department of Insurance statistics show that the status of health insurance in Colorado today is better than it was five years ago due to a lessening of government mandates in insurance coverage.
Previously, Colorado only allowed insurance companies to use community rating. This means that all insurers were required to make no distinction between the premiums they charged for the healthy and sick. Thus, premiums were very high, and many healthy individuals chose to forego insurance because they determined they could not afford it. The legislature altered the mandate to a modified community rating --- not free market, but a step in the right direction -- and thereby allowed insurance companies to charge up to 25% lower premiums for the healthiest customers. As a result, more small businesses and their employees have purchased insurance in the last two years. In 2006, 1,289 more businesses offered health insurance to their employees and dependents than in 2005, according to a report from the Colorado Division of Insurance.
Reducing government burdens means more freedom, which as we all know, is not only moral, but the only way that people can flourish.
The blog of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM)
