It Should Be My Choice

I want more choices.

Damn Right!

The government limits what I am allowed to buy. It isn’t up to Washington to tell me what I need.

Agreed!

All those extras just add to the cost.

  Yes, make it cheaper.

I’m tired of the nanny state. Too many politicians are butting in.  They are taking money out of my wallet.  Let me make my own decisions.  I want more choices.

I’m with you.

Yep. I’m going to call my Congressman and demand change.

  Me, too.

I’m tired of Washington adding thousands of dollars to the price of a car. I don’t want to pay extra for air bags.  Seat belts are a waste of my money.  I never wear them.  Man, there’s a bunch of stuff like this.  Anti-lock brakes?  Really?  I want to get rid of all this unnecessary crap and get a better price on my next car.

Cars?  I thought you were talking about health insurance.

When Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) says that he wants Americans to have more choices what he is really saying is that the current policies are too expensive because they are too comprehensive.  Americans no longer have the opportunity to purchase inadequate health insurance policies.  All policies are now required to cover the ten Essential Health Benefits (EHB).  Which of the following would you like to leave off your next policy?  Are you sure?

1. Ambulatory patient services
2. Emergency services
3. Hospitalization
4. Pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care
5. Mental health and substance use disorder services
6. Prescription Drugs
7. Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
8. Laboratory services
9. Preventive and wellness services
10. Pediatric services

How could you know that you’ll never have cancer or a chronic back problem? Which benefits can you eliminate?  The easy one is maternity.  How much does a 60 year old pay for maternity?  About the same amount as a 22 year old pays for prostate cancer.  The truth is that you can’t make an informed decision.  You can’t guarantee that you will never suffer from depression or get hooked on opioids after major dental work.  And none of that really matters because it assumes that you would be making these choices with your eyes wide-open and know exactly what types of coverage you would be eliminating.  You won’t.

This whole push to get policies sold across state lines is about removing care. Ohio, for example, recently passed legislation guaranteeing coverage for the treatment of autism.  That is a Republican governor, a Republican controlled senate, and a Republican controlled house voted to grant this benefit for all of Ohio’s children.  Tom Price wants you to have the opportunity to purchase a cut-rate policy from Tulsa based Shaky Ground Mutual.  Minnesota may be leading the way towards the new, useless policies.  More importantly, it won’t be until you go to the doctor that you will find out that your child’s autism or your cancer isn’t covered.

It may be difficult to read today’s heavily regulated health insurance policies, but these have much less fine print and legalese than what we used to provide. Remove the regulations and we immediately return to the gobbledygook of the past.  If locked doors keep honest people honest, than regulations are the locked doors that protect the consumer from our insurance providers.

Please don’t confuse this post as a full-throated endorsement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  It is not.  The PPACA is a badly written law that needs significant changes if it ever has a chance to succeed.  Most of our representatives in Washington know this.  That’s not repeal.  That’s repair.

Will the Republicans overcome their obsession with our last president and choose to do what’s in the country’s best interest? I don’t know.  It is the one choice they didn’t want.

DAVE