With much of the health care reform debate still focused on the wisdom of including a government-run, “public” health insurance “option,” too many opponents are neglecting a far more insidious feature of the Democratic proposals:  the mandatory purchase requirement.  Under each of the bills moving through Congress, every person living in the United States would be required by law to have health insurance.  And, if your employer doesn’t provide you with it, you’ve got to buy it yourself or pay…

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Yesterday in a press release from CEI’s Center for Risk, Regulation, and Markets, the Center raised many questions that should be brought to Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty’s attention. The questions mainly surrounded doubt over whether or not Florida has enough capital to pay out insurance claims in the event of a catastrophic hurricane.

As Christian Cámara, director of CEI’s Florida Insurance Project, said in the release, “There are a lot of very serious unanswered questions.”

There was one question that was unfortunately…

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In one regulated area of the economy after another, it’s exasperating to hear journalists and pundits claim that, “The market has failed,” when in fact it hasn’t been allowed to function. That’s especially true in the case of insurance, which operates under a regime of state-level protectionism, as former CEI Brookes Fellow Tim Carney makes clear in his Washington Examiner column today:

Rep. John Shadegg, a conservative Republican from Arizona, has proposed a bill to allow interstate purchase of health insurance. Blue…

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In today’s Financial Times, CEI Senior Fellow Gregory Conko responds to Clive Crook’s criticism of employer-sponsored health insurance.  Read the original here or see below.

Nationalising healthcare flaws

Published: July 17 2009 03:00 | Last updated: July 17 2009 03:00

From Mr Gregory Conko.

Sir, It is ironic that Clive Crook condemns employer-sponsored health insurance for encouraging over-consumption of medical services while simultaneously touting publicly provided or publicly subsidised universal healthcare coverage (“Two cheers for US health reform”, July 13).

It is true that the “link between consumer…

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It may not be in a debacle like California’s, but I still find it galling to see my home state of Florida go from being one of the best governed states in the country to leading the nation in a particularly destructive sort of fiscal insanity. But if the first step toward a cure is an accurate diagnosis, The Economist is helping on that count. As the current issue notes:

Two years ago, after homeowners complained about rising insurance premiums, the governor,…

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Insurance regulation is one of the most complicated areas of legislation, and following the pros and cons of different bills is often a difficult task. Some regulations can actually benefit the free market, while others obviously hinder it. But as often as is the case with legislation, political support for otherwise complex laws can be explained with simple economics.

Generally speaking, most politicians try to support legislation that brings the most money to their districts while spreading the tax costs across…

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Your host Richard Morrison welcomes back guest co-host Jeremy Lott and special guest Greg Conko for Episode 47. We start with the new Obama-Geithner plan for expanding regulation of financial markets, the protests over the disputed presidential election in Iran and the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation of telemarketing robocalls. We then move on to the “beer bikes” of Amsterdam and some potentially scandalous investment choices made by Sen. Dick Durban. Finally, we talk health care with CEI Senior Fellow Greg…

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It seems that the state of Florida has overpromised insurance coverage to its citizens in the case of a catastrophic storm, and now is coming to Congress for a bailout, lest a major storm bankrupt the state. Naturally, we had something to say about this in a press release today. The director of CEI’s Florida office, Christian Cámara:

Reliance on a Federal bailout as official state policy is reckless at best. Instead of lobbying Washington politicians for money, Commissioner [Kevin] McCarty and…

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