I read that the final health care nationalization bill passed last month abandoned overt price controls. I sure hope that’s true, because in Massachusetts, price controls are doing what they always do, creating shortages:
This week it became impossible in Massachusetts for small businesses and individuals to buy health-care coverage after Governor Deval Patrick imposed price controls on premiums. . .
The Massachusetts small-group market that serves about 800,000 residents shut down after Mr. Patrick kicked off his re-election campaign by presumptively rejecting about 90% of the premium increases the state’s insurers had asked regulators to approve. Health costs have run off the rails since former GOP Governor Mitt Romney and Beacon Hill passed universal coverage in 2006, and Mr. Patrick now claims price controls are the sensible response to this ostensibly industry greed. . . Until the matter is resolved, the insurers have simply stopped selling new policies.
Massachusetts is countering by trying to coerce insurance companies to sell coverage at a loss:
A court decision is expected by Monday, but state officials have demanded that the insurers—under the threat of fines and other regulatory punishments—resume offering quotes by today and to revert to year-old base premiums.
Got that? Massachusetts’s price controls have made it so that its insurers would prefer to stop doing business. Now the state is trying to force them to continue doing business against their will. The Soviets tried the same thing, and they had to build walls to keep people from leaving.
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