Why are Dems against interstate competition?

[mskafka]

It is a great idea in theory. But like veritas said: businesses are going to gravitate to the states that will regulate them the least. If this is going to be a policy, it needs to be tweaked.

 

[veritas]

Annnnnnnd where is the state that most credit card companies operate out of????


South Dakota.


Annnnnnnd what state does Baucus represent?????


South Dakota.

The Baucus Plan: State Insurance Regulation, National Plans

One of the big questions with insurance offerings is who regulates the plans, and how. Currently, regulation is done at the state level. Republicans don't like this, and neither do Democrats, and neither do insurers. It means every insurer needs to offer different plans in every state. Fragmentation and inefficiency, thy name is America's health-care system.

Republicans want insurance companies to be able to sell across state lines, using the regulations of the state where they're based. This is pretty much what happens in the credit card industry, and it's why most companies are headquartered in South Dakota: The regulations are virtually nonexistent, allowing for all manner of chicanery.

Democrats, conversely, want the regulations to be federal in nature. One single standard that all plans have to meet. Baucus's bill allows for both.

To satisfy the Republicans, Baucus creates "health care choice compacts." These are agreements between different states to allow insurers to sell across their lines. California, Nevada and Wyoming, for instance, could form a compact, and insurers based in Wyoming could sell a product conforming to Wyoming's regulatory standards in all three states. The voluntary nature of the compacts is important here: California presumably wouldn't want to partner with Alabama, as that would junk all the regulations they've built over the years.

To satisfy the Democrats, Baucus's bill allows for the creation of "national plans." The bill directs "The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), in consultation with consumer groups, business interests, including small businesses, the insurance industry, federal regulators, and benefit experts" to create a uniform set of benefit standards that insurers would have to meet to offer a national plan. Once met, that plan could be offered in every state, as it would preempt state regulations. Presumably, that plan would also have more bargaining power and substantial efficiencies of scale, as it will be national, rather than confined to a single state. This could prove seriously transformative in the private insurance market.

By Ezra Klein | September 16, 2009; 12:34 PM ET

Ezra Klein - The Baucus Plan: State Insurance Regulation, National Plans

 

[Ame®icano]

Baucus is from Montana.

 

[Polk]

uh because........they'll all go to one or two of the least regulated states and operate out of them. And then what we will have is more like a credit card corporate haven situation.

And life insurance is an investment vehicle as much as it is insurance, or maybe more so. Car insurance and homeowners is highly regulated.

Bingo.

 

[Polk]

T: you would never get off the ground. Somebody would find all of your posts here and use them against you........lmao.

Just call him Tommy. He'll go apeshit.

 

[Polk]

It is a great idea in theory. But like veritas said: businesses are going to gravitate to the states that will regulate them the least. If this is going to be a policy, it needs to be tweaked.

If they really favored interstate competition, they'd love the exchanges.

 

[rdean]

If they really wanted competition, they would support a public option.

What a bunch of chickenshi....

What kind of competition is when governemnt is trying to kill private option (Medicare Advantage) in favor of public (government) option?

So lets get rid of Medicare, then Medicaid, the VA, the Post Office, the DMV, hell, let's get rid of the military. We can outsource that to Black water.

The CEO of Cigna makes around 200 million over 5 years. Their boardroom uses gold plated knive and forks and flatware. They have corporate jets at the cost of more than 68 million dollars.

Health Care companies own no hospitals, employ no doctors or nurses, own no medicine. They make nothing.

How do they so many millions of dollars in profit? It's easy, they skim money from people paying for insurance then refuse them care when they get sick. Congress has made it legal. Republicans call it capitalism.

I call it a scam bought and paid for with the very money that should be going to, get this, "health care". The facts are "right there" clear as glass, bright and shiney as a new penny.

 

[Polk]

If they really wanted competition, they would support a public option.

What a bunch of chickenshi....

What kind of competition is when governemnt is trying to kill private option (Medicare Advantage) in favor of public (government) option?

Medicare Advantage is no more of a "private option" than the student loan market is a private option. Both are government programs that pay fees to corporations to use their nameplates.

 

[Si modo]

Baucus is from Montana.

LMAO. Too true.

 

[veritas]

oh yes right, I was thinking of the other stiff, Kent Conrad.............one of the other gang of six.

Sorry. I get all those interior states mixed up. Doesn't matter anyway....less than 1.5 million people live in both states combined.

 

[Si modo]

oh yes right, I was thinking of the other stiff, Kent Conrad.............one of the other gang of six.

Sorry. I get all those interior states mixed up. Doesn't matter anyway....less than 1.5 million people live in both states combined.

Yeah, those flyover states. No real Americans live there and we as a nation can just ignore them.

 

[veritas]

oh yes right, I was thinking of the other stiff, Kent Conrad.............one of the other gang of six.

Sorry. I get all those interior states mixed up. Doesn't matter anyway....less than 1.5 million people live in both states combined.

Yeah, those flyover states. No real Americans live there and we as a nation can just ignore them.

I never said they weren't real Americans. But the fact is that they don't have the same issues to deal with as the rest of the more populated states and they represent such a tiny amount of the electorate. They have lots of land and very few people. They don't have the tax base or the need for certain things that an economy of scale makes possible.

(R)Enzi/Wyoming: .5M people::97k sq mi
(D)Conrad/South Dakota: .8M people::77k sq mi
(D)Baucus/Montana: .9M people::147k sq mi
(R)Snowe/Maine: 1.3M people::33k sq mi
(D)Bingaman/New Mexico: 2M::122k sq mi
(R)Grassley/Iowa: 3M::56k sq mi

That's less than 9 million people in those 6 states. Those states aren't noted for their involvement with weighty financial matters or heavy infrastructure needs either. Contrast that to:

Massachusetts: 6.5M people::5.5k sq mi
Maryland: 5.7M people::10.5k sq mi
New Jersey: 8.6M people::8.7 sq mi

That's 3 states on less land than Maine [less than half the area of the smallest state out of those listed above], with more than twice the people than all of those 6.....over 20 million.

Now we see the disconnect. We can't expect Baucus or Conrad to appreciate the order of magnitude with respect to their own states. The smaller, more populous states have infrastructures that not only are necessary for so many people living on such a small area, but the tax bases to achieve it. If you look at Maryland, the more conservative districts are the ones that are less populated/developed. On a federal scale with respect to Federal taxes they don't want more, because they are too spread out to see the benefits. Same thing with these larger states. In order to provide the bare minimum of services they pay what the more populated states pay, but they get less because they don't have that many people. This is erroneously labeled a culture difference, when it really is a density difference. It's like having 4 children instead of one, things get done differently. For instance, getting a Wii or a playstation seems extravagant if you have one child, but if you have 4, then it seems like a better expenditure, or a basketball hoop or a swingset. It costs more, but more people can use it and enjoy it. You can buy the mega bag of cereal for less because it will get eaten.