It is yet to be seen if President Obama’s health care summit is a genuine attempt to reach out and resolve health care in a bipartisan manner, or a ruse to check the box on bipartisanship before proposing another liberal Washington takeover of health care. Recent reports that the President and Congressional leaders are secretly writing yet another bill to attach to the filibuster-proof reconciliation bill certainly indicate the latter, and if that is the case, conservatives should boycott the event, and call it out for what it really is. But if the President and Congressional leadership are committed to bipartisan reform, there are real grounds of potential agreement among Republicans and Democrats.
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Member Questions of the Week of February 22, 2010
Joseph from San Antonio, TX asks: “Is there anything constitutionally that prevents persons from buying health care plans across state lines? If not, what is it in law that is stopping this now?” OUR ANSWER: Existing federal law provides for an almost exclusive state regulation of health insurance. Meaning, each state can set its own rules and regulations that an insurance company must follow to receive a license to provide insurance in that particular state. There are exceptions, as there are federal laws governing group insurance and self-insured employer health plans. Yet, there is nothing in the Constitution forbidding interstate commerce in health insurance. Under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress is authorized to regulate such interstate commerce. In the case of health insurance it has chosen to leave the regulation up to the states, which renders health insurance an intra-state phenomenon. Thus, there is no national market for health insurance as there is for other goods and services in the economy. Many state regulators and larger insurance companies prefer this approach since it enhances the power of state regulators over the terms and conditions of coverage while also limiting the supply of available options in any given state.
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