Saturday, September 3, 2011

The Battle In The States

The 8/25/2011 Washington Times reports, "Rebellion by states could be hazardous to health care overhaul".

(As the article notes, it's unclear that any state-level initiatives could override federal-level provisions of ObamaCare without consent of Congress and the President. But the state-level actions are an interesting reflection of popular political sentiment.)

In the 8/25/2011 Orange County Register, John Graham notes "Health insurers in states' cross hairs".

When state governments can accept (or reject) requested insurance rate increases, it turns the nominally-private health insurance companies into a variant of "public" utilities. Yet when it suits them, the states can shift the blame for increases on the insurers for political purposes.