As I have noted before, the Democrats health care plan is based on the model instituted in Massachusetts. The same model that has helped created the highest health care costs has now created the highest health insurance premiums in the country:

The report by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit health care foundation, showed that the average family premium for plans offered by employers in Massachusetts was $13,788 in 2008, 40 percent higher than in 2003. Over the same period, premiums nationwide rose an average of 33 percent.

In the spirit of Monk, here’s what happened:

The state of Massachusetts thought it should meddle in the free market to correct the problems other meddling had created. So they set up a “Connector” which, according to the Cato Institute:

is not actually an insurer. Rather, it is designed to allow individuals and workers in small companies to take advantage of the economies of scale, both in terms of administration and risk pooling, which are currently enjoyed by large employers. Multiple employers are able to pay into the Connector on behalf of a single employee. And, most importantly, the Connector would allow workers to use pretax dollars to purchase individual insurance. That would make insurance personal and portable, rather than tied to an employer-all very desirable things.

The Connector is governed by a board. This governing body has the power to say what insurance providers in the state have to cover. This nonsense has expensive results:

…the Connector’s board has seen itself as a combination of the state legislature and the insurance commissioner, adding a host of new regulations and mandates.

For example, the Connector’s governing board has decreed that by January 2009, no one in the state will be allowed to have insurance with more than a $2,000 deductible or total out-of-pocket costs of more than $5,000. In addition, every policy in the state will be required to phase in coverage of prescription drugs, a move that could add 5–15 percent to the cost of insurance plans. A move to require dental coverage barely failed to pass the board, and the dentists-along with several other provider groups-have not given up the effort to force their inclusion. This comes on top of the 40 mandated benefits that the state had previously required, ranging from in vitro fertilization to chiropractic services.

When this goes national, you can be guaranteed employers will simply refuse to cover health insurance and leave their employees to fend for themselves. The public option will be the cheapest, and eventually the most successful policy on the market.

What do you think will happen to the other insurance companies? Jan Schakowsky knows:

It will put the private insurance industry out of business.

Now you know why I, and so many others, am against this. The answer doesn’t lie in more government. It rarely does.

Related posts:

• Insurance Companies, Meet The “Health Choices Commissioner”
• Free Market Health Care? Not in America…
• The Devil is in the Details: A Look at Obama’s Health Care Plan
• How is the Health Care Program in Massachusetts Working Out?
• There’s No Such Thing As Free Health Care