(Liberty Bell) – The states of Colorado, Nevada, and Washington are having a rather difficult time providing cheap, affordable health care options for their residents after passing legislation that mandated public health insurance options, a piece from Politico has revealed.
“The Democratic-run states previously introduced laws that used the state’s regulatory authority to require insurers to drastically lower costs while providing public options in order to expand health insurance access, Politico reported. However, rising medical costs have stymied enrollment in government-run health plans that Colorado, Nevada and Washington forced private health insurers to offer to residents,” Jack McEvoy of the Daily Caller wrote.
The reporter continued, “After receiving a federal waiver to implement its health care plan, Colorado forced health insurers to offer public health insurance plans in 2022 and also required insurance companies to reduce premiums by 5% each year, slash out-of-pocket costs and offer a list of health care providers that is ‘culturally responsive,’ among other benefits, according to Politico. Only one insurance company out of eight was able to meet the state’s premium reduction targets as they were unable to sufficiently cut costs.”
Health officials from Nevada were set to meet on Tuesday to hold discussions on whether they should attempt to lower the health care premium reduction targets from 20 percent to 16 percent over the next four years so they might mitigate the current spike in medical costs, as per new information from the Nevada Health and Human Services.
While there are almost 300,000 people in the state of Nevada who currently do not have health insurance coverage, the current plan will only insure roughly around 8,500 extra people by the year 2029, if they can use the money they raise from premium decreases in order to bring down the costs of plans, a state analysis shows.
“In Washington state, which passed its public option mandate in 2019, almost 240,000 people signed up for individual policies through the state’s health insurance initiative, but only about 7,000 of them chose public option plans for 2022, according to Politico. Health officials also assert that public option plans are still too expensive even though the government provides subsidies for low-income residents,” McEvoy continued.
“Washington is implementing a rule that will force hospitals to contract with at least one public option insurance carrier in counties where [sic] is no public option; however, hospitals fear that this will weaken their ability to negotiate prices with providers,” the report concluded.
The only real solution to the high cost of healthcare is the free market. Get rid of the restrictions that prevent companies from selling their products across state lines. Increase competition. That will drive down costs and force insurance companies to come up with better plans to attract customers. Capitalism works. It’s been tried and tested.
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