But auto insurance is heavily regulated by individual states, yet it is very easy to shop around and buy auto insurance from companies nationwide on the internet. There may be many reasons to end state regulation of health insurance, but making it easy to shop for health insurance is not one of the reasons. On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 4:28 PM, Dan Rue <drue at therub.org> wrote: > On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 04:08:12PM -0500, Mike Miller wrote: > > That could change if McCain becomes President: > > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16herbert.html > > > > I suppose the change would be good for someone, but I have the impression > > that most people don't want to pay tax on their health benefit. > > Egads, politics on tclug.. I'm not going to get sucked in, but just to > clarify, from the link: > > While there might be less money in the paycheck, that would not be > anything to worry about, according to Senator McCain. That's > because the government would be offering all taxpayers a refundable tax > credit - $2,500 for a single worker and $5,000 per family - to > be used "to help pay for your health care." > > So, i'm not an apologist, but to clarify the strategy here, as I > understand it. The idea is to move the burden of health insurance from > an employer sponsored benefit to an individual family decision. The > theory is that this will give employees more freedom to move around > since they benefits aren't as important, and it will reduce a lot of > employer overhead in terms of providing such benefits (esp for small > business). > > Consider how auto insurance works. Individuals can shop around and the > policy that best fits their needs and budget, and they're not limited to > what their employer offers. > > More from the article: > > Yet another radical element of McCain's plan is his proposal to > undermine state health insurance regulations by allowing consumers to > buy insurance from sellers anywhere in the country. So a requirement in > one state that insurers cover, for example, vaccinations, or annual > physicals, or breast examinations, would essentially be meaningless. > > So the author is showing his bias here. Currently, each state has its > own set of rules for who can sell insurance and what it has to provide. > Insurance companies have to invest considerable resources for each state > their in in order to meet all of the individual rules and regulations. > > Again, like car insurance, the idea is to make health insurance more > simple by removing the individual state regulations and allowing > individual families to comparison shop for insurance nationally. > > Agree or disagree, it's thought provoking and worth debate (something > lacking in the current political scene). > > Dan (I won't be following up, as we've veered way off topic) > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20080919/a99d3291/attachment.htm