Obama’s Health Secretary Sebelius Proves Need for Insurance Sales across State Lines
Comments (2) Anthem BCBS of California to raise premiums by 39% in 2011!
In an attempt to plug into populist anger against high insurance costs, US Health and Human Services Cabinet Secretary Kathleen Sebilus accidentally proves that when a company has monopoly power, its prices are not held down by market pressures. Any chance that Obama, the Constitutional Scholar, would will be willing to consider using the Commerce Clause to open states up to interstate competition for health insurance? Don’t count on it.
From Reuters:
“These extraordinary increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation and threaten to make health care unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy,” Sebelius wrote to Anthem Blue Cross President Leslie Margolin.
While it was unclear what, if any, steps the U.S. health department could take, Sebelius said she was “very disturbed” and was “closely monitoring” the Anthem situation. State authorities in California — the nation’s most populated state — are also investigating the reported rate hike.
