Conservatives Beware

The Republicans are meeting with President Obama this week about health insurance reform. This is an effort by President Obama to pretend to show bipartisanship. It is a trap. We should be aware of where this is headed. Last weekend, Ed Rendell (Governor-PA) was on one of the Fox news shows.

He talked about listening to Republican ideas on health insurance reform. He referred to an “excellent” idea by Tim Pawlenty. The idea was to allow people to buy insurance across state lines. He said “that’s a good idea in theory” but he only wants that company from Idaho to sell in Pennsylvania “if they are held to the same standards”. In other words if they provide the mandated coverage that Pennsylvania requires then they can sell insurance there. This is the trickery that the Democrats will be using. You have to pay careful attention to what they are saying. It sounds like they are opening the door to competition by allowing insurance companies to sell insurance across state lines. Here’s the problem – that insurance company in Idaho can already sell insurance in Pennsylvania by registering with the state and selling the insurance that Pennsylvania mandates. There’s no change!!! The point of removing the barrier of state lines is so that people will have the option to buy insurance from a company in a state where there are fewer mandates and cheaper premiums. It’s a simple concept that the Democrats just do not get: more mandates equal higher premiums (see idea #2 in REAL Reform – 7 Ideas for Health Insurance Reform).

Governor Rendell also used the liberal ploy of victimhood by bringing up children with autism. He portrayed Pennsylvania as the champion of the little guy where they tell their health insurance companies that “you have to provide coverage to autistic children”. This is what the liberals refer to as a “consumer protection”. While there are legitimate mandates like covering children with disabilities many of the mandates are unnecessary and simply cause insurance premiums to be higher.

So what is Governor Rendell’s solution? He wants to “set up national standards”. Translation: a national insurance commissioner that determines what is and is not acceptable coverage. So when this commissioner decides massage therapy is a necessary consumer protection (or mandate) that those evil insurance companies must cover, we end up paying higher premiums – whether we want massage therapy or not. It's just another way for the government to tell us what insurance we must have. It’s no different than what we have now at the state level and we see how well that works.

The Democrats will set this up as an effort to be bipartisan. They'll say that they're "listening" to the Republicans' ideas. They'll say they want to implement their ideas. But in reality, they'll ruin the effectiveness of those ideas with more government intervention. Then, when it does not reduce premiums because there are still too many coverage mandates they'll blame the Republicans. If the Republicans say no to this ruse then they will be branded as the party of "no". The trap is set and the Republicans are walking into it. Let's hope the American people are smart enough to see this for what it is.