Monday, March 22, 2010

Schwartz at PJM: "Get Ready for Health Insurance Slumlords"

Congratulations to Brian Schwartz for his latest OpEd at PajamasMedia:
"Get Ready for Health Insurance Slumlords"

Here is the opening:
If you dislike your health insurer now, just wait until politicians impose price controls that make your insurer act like a slumlord. Expect worse customer service, skimpier plans, and more claim denials.

Price controls on rental properties encourage landlords to become slumlords. Forbidden from making a profit by renting at market rates, to make a living landlords must skimp on quality and service rather than please customers. The same will result from insurance price controls: lousy policies for people with preexisting conditions or for anyone who might get sick.

That is, everyone...
(Read the full text of "Get Ready for Health Insurance Slumlords".)

Thank you, Brian, for making these important points.

(I personally think that any current government-subsidized "high-risk pools" should be phased out in favor of fully-privatized charities.)

But more broadly, as the problems with ObamaCare inevitably unfold, it will be important to remind Americans that they are caused not by private insurance, but by government interference with the rights of consumers and insurers to contract freely.

This will be the next front in the battle of ideas. Thank you for that fine opening salvo!