Now that the healthcare bill has been passed, many are wondering what comes next. I’ll let you know my take. But first, I want to thank all of you for working so hard to keep this bill from passing.
So many of you made phone calls, rallied, mailed letters, and sent emails. Some even traveled to Washington. Thank you!
We lost, but it was not for lack of effort on your part.
We now need to get up, dust ourselves off, defeat any more big government proposals, and gear up for November.
When the President signed the healthcare reform bill into law, he noted that “The overheated rhetoric of reform will finally confront the reality of reform.”
He’s right. But here is the reality: Insurance companies will now be required to accept children with preexisting conditions and carry adults up to the age of 26 on their parent’s policies.
New policies will have to cover preventative care without co-pays.
Whether or not you think this is a good thing, the bottom line is that when health insurance is no longer a hedge against risk, it can no longer be accurately called health insurance. Health insurance companies will now be regulated like public utilities.
Keep in mind that individual mandates requiring the purchase of insurance to broaden the pool of insured will not kick in for another four years. No new competition is required under the new law, nor is there any serious effort to deal with legal liability.
In other words, there is no downward pressure on cost – only upward pressure.
Here in Congress we can pass all the laws we want, but we cannot suspend the laws of economics, nor can we phase them in. Americans should now be prepared for higher premiums.
That will be the most immediate reality of reform.
Jeff Flake
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