Old Line Elephant Maryland Conservative Blog

Cut out Healthcare Mandates

Jumping off the recent contraception mandate the President is pushing on religious organizations, Bytestyle had compiled a handful of healthcare mandates from right here in Maryland in early 2009 that are shooting up prices even if everyone does not need these things, so should not have them as part of their basic coverage:

Here are just a few of the dozens of things I'm paying for:

In-Vitro Fertilization - accounts for 3-5% of my premium
Morbid Obesity Treatment - accounts for 1-3% of my premium
Smoking Cessation - accounts for 1-3% of my premium
Well Child Care - accounts for 1-3% of my premium
Alcoholism/Substance Abuse - accounts for 1-3% of my premium
Hair Prosthesis - accounts for 1% of my premium

I'm not morbidly obese, I don't smoke, I don't have kids (nor am I looking to get pregnant any time soon, sorry mom!), and I'm pretty sure I don't need rehab.

If I tally it up, these items are responsible for up to 18% of my premium. That's almost $100/month I'm paying for coverage I absolutely do not want or need.

I also learned that there are nearly 2,133 mandates like these, which are responsible for group health insurance premium increases of 20 to 50 percent.

So... maybe there's a good reason for these mandates?
Nope!

J.P. Wieske, director of state affairs for the Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI), says "For state legislators, [mandates are] used as a special interest tool to reward lobbyists with a specific mandate and let someone else pay for it"

So, I have a question for Congress and President Obama: Can any of you tell me why this isn't being discussed as part of your health care reform plan?

It seems pretty logical to me: Don't make people pay for coverage they don't need, then when premiums are significantly lower, won't millions more Americans be able to afford healthcare?

Seriously. Why should single people have to pay for well child care? Why should non-smokers have to be covered for smoking cessation materials? It seems outlandish because, frankly, it is. We need people in the State Legislature to fix these and other ridiculous regulations in Maryland. Hopefully we have a few with the boldness to propose removing these burdens.