The topic was the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report for the health insurance industry which stated that the Baucus plan would result in higher prices and less flexibility for the insured.
The quoted section includes:
..."The PWC report correctly notes that the Baucus bill would impose tremendous financial hardships on many middle-class Americans by forcing them to purchase expensive state-mandated insurance on terms set by the politicians," said Paul M. Hsieh, M.D., cofounder of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine in Denver, Colorado.(Read the full text of "Baucus Health Care Legislation Advances".)
...Hsieh believes insurers ultimately will regret not fighting the reform package by arguing for market freedom.
"Earlier this spring the insurance industry could have taken a principled stand in favor of genuine free-market reforms, such as repealing laws banning sales across state lines as well as laws mandating guaranteed issue and community rating," Hsieh said.
"Such reforms could have greatly reduced insurance costs for millions of Americans currently priced out of the market," Hsieh continued. "Instead, they chose to make a deal with the devil and accept new regulations requiring them to cover everyone regardless of preexisting conditions, in exchange for a Massachusetts-like individual mandate."
I'm grateful to the Heartland Institute for allowing me to appear again in its newsletter.
