Thursday, October 31, 2013

Healthcare.gov is the symptom....

FoIB Bob Graboyes has a wonderful, insightful post up over at Forbes, in which he notes the confluence of Israeli daycare, Blue Grass State healthcare (well, health insurance, to be precise) and the SCOTUS tax-scare:

"[D]ay care centers in Haifa, Israel, had a problem with tardy parents retrieving their children after closing time ... monetary penalties would discourage parents from flouting the no-tardiness mandate"

The problem is that they aimed low, and shot themselves in the foot. How? By imposing only a nominal fine, they ended up reinforcing the behavior.

And then there was Kentucky's ill-fated 1994 attempt at its own version of RomneyCare the ObamaTax:

"Insurers could neither refuse purchasers nor drop them for health reasons. Insurers could not differentiate premiums on the basis of gender, health status, or claims experience ... Insurers fled the state by the dozens ... By 2000, guaranteed issue was gone"

I remember this debacle well - in fact, I taught a CE class on it, back in the day. I recall how frustrating it was for Kentucky agents, since the only carrier left was Blue Cross. Lots of choice there.

Which brings us to the SCOTUS and liver. To this day, I'm ambivalent about whether CJ Roberts' decision was a gift or a curse. Bob offers his own take, and I can't say that I disagree.

Read the whole thing©.

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