Obama Wants To Make “Unreasonable” Health Insurance Rate Hikes Illegal
Forget that Obamacare is actually going to make health care cost growth in this country accelerate health care costs. Obama is saying that if our insurance companies respond to that growth with “unreasonable” increases in insurance rates they’re going to be punished under the law.
The problem? Who gets to decide what is and is not “unreasonable”?
WASHINGTON—The Obama administration on Thursday told health insurers that it will track those who enact “unjustified” rate increases linked to the health overhaul and may block those companies from a new marketplace for insurance coverage.
Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, issued the warning in a letter to Karen Ignagni, the insurance industry’s top lobbyist.
Ms. Sebelius said some insurers were notifying enrollees that their insurance premiums will increase next year as a result of the law’s new benefits.
Remember that under Obamacare, the Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius (and whoever comes after her) will have to approve every single health insurance policy that’s for sale in America. The federal government now controls the health insurance market place, and if they decide that you’re not to be in that market place…then you can’t sell insurance.
And now Obama is making “unreasonable” rate hikes one of the standards for inclusion. But what’s unreasonable?
Think of the constitution. Does the first amendment say that only “reasonable” speech is allowed? No. It says that free speech shall not be abridged, because our founding fathers realized that leaving it up to the government to define “reasonable” would leave free speech vulnerable to the machinations of politicians.
Just Obamacare has opened up health insurance rates to the machinations of politicians. If you’re an insurance company and you want your rate hike approved by the government, well, maybe if you grease the right palms and make the right political contributions it can happen.
Which is why the government shouldn’t have this authority.
Tags: Barack Obama, health insurance, obamacare
