Recent Op-Ed Highlights Need To Pass Bill To Allow U.S. Residents To Purchase Health Insurance In Any State, Letter Says

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 24 Dec 2007 - 7:00 PDT

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A Dec. 12 Wall Street Journal opinion piece written by Merrill Matthews, executive director of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, highlights the "tragedy of state governments forbidding citizens from exercising the basic right to buy health insurance from other states," John Graham, director of health care studies at the Pacific Research Institute, writes in a Journal letter to the editor (Graham, Wall Street Journal, 12/20). In the opinion piece, Matthews recommends that Congress pass the Health Care Choice Act -- legislation sponsored by Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) that would allow U.S. residents to purchase health insurance in any state -- to help make the market more competitive and reduce costs (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/12).

According to Graham, "regional regulatory monopolies drive up health costs by making their residents pay for expensive mandates that benefit determined interest groups at society's expense," and state governments "also drive up health costs and taxes in less-regulated states because over-regulated states continuously lobby the federal government for more money to bandage their self-inflicted wounds."

He writes that the "federal government's out-of-control spending" on Medicaid and SCHIP "bails out states that drive private health insurance premiums sky high through overregulation." As a result, "residents of states where health insurance is still affordable should be just as outraged as those in overregulated jurisdictions" and support the legislation, Graham adds (Graham, Wall Street Journal, 12/20).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.