Obamacare: The Competition Attrition Cometh

If we are to have more affordable health care—single payer won’t do it, in my view—we need robust, interstate competition by health insurance companies, which would lead to greater innovation in policies and affordable options, such as catastrophic coverage with high deductibles.  But Obamacare is written to—or will have the effect of—reducing competition by placing health insurance companies in federal handcuffs—limiting innovation, and depending on how the Feds regulate the sector, even the ability to stay in business.

This will cause companies to leave the market, thereby reducing competition, leading to increased costs.  And now that process has begun in Iowa.  From the story:

Principal Financial Group said Thursday that it will leave the medical insurance business, further reducing competition among health insurers in Iowa. Principal will transfer the renewal rights for its health insurance customers in Iowa and 30 other states to UnitedHealthcare over the next 36 months.  The decision means the disappearance of the third-largest health insurer in Iowa at a time when half a dozen other small insurers have told the Iowa Insurance Division that they also plan to quit selling health insurance in Iowa. The health insurance industry is consolidating, Voss said, driven by a combination of market forces and increased government regulation.

Obamacare has poisoned the health insurance industry.  In my more cynical moments, I think that is by design. The American people are not currently on board for NHS or Canadian-style health care, but we will have no choice if the health insurance industry—including non profits—is destroyed.

I understand the appeal of SP.  Heck, I used to be a big proponent.  But, I have changed my mind.  Here are some reasons why:

• SP grows government to an unhealthy level.


• SP places incredible power over our lives into the hands of bureaucrats as they impose ever more intrusive regulations in the guise of promoting “wellness” and reducing health care costs—a process that has already started.


• SP puts government regulators of the sector on the side of government, rather than serving as a defense the people they are supposed to serve.  (Just check out the VA appeals system, as one example, a government sector with which my family has painful experience.)


• SP means the lawyers can’t use the hammer of bad faith lawsuits to make sure that insurance companies meet their obligations.  (I support tort law as a market remedy for a market system.  See Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith, No Contest: Corporate Lawyers and the Perversion of Justice in America.)


• SP requires fixed budgets, which are never enough, leading to rationing, long lines for important services such as diagnostic testing, and voluntary surgeries.


• SP results in top-down regulatory control that makes a hash—as has happened repeatedly in the NHS.

Obamacare’s cure for our health system illness is worse than the disease.  The competition attrition must be reversed before it is too late.  Repeal. Reform. Replace. Defund.