Better on the other side

Kevin Drum complains about the lack of discussion about the dangerous impact of selling insurance across state lines, then hears from and points to David Adensnik at Conventional Folly, who in turn found this New York Times article that actually explained the folly (shocker) of the Republican infatuation with an (unregulated) intrastate insurance exchange.

Healthier adults would buy cheaper policies out of state, the budget office said, while less-healthy adults would stick to in-state insurance because it covers the services they need. Premiums would rise for the latter group as the risk pool became less healthy and more costly.

“From a consumer protection point of view, the result of allowing sales across state lines would be that the state with the least restrictive regulatory scheme would have an advantage and could undercut all the others, and you would have a race to the bottom,” said John Rother, executive vice president of policy and strategy for AARP, the lobby for older Americans, which supports the Democrats’ legislation and markets insurance itself.

Put simply, facts like this are the reason the GOP doesn't want to attend the President's health insurance reform summit. They can't put their ideas up to actual, honest public scrutiny, and holding an event like this is the only way the broadcast media will really tell the story to the public.