Quote:
Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
A true market doesn't exist because there have been various regulatory and legislative efforts to keep medical care out of the free market. That's a legitimate social choice, but the justification for it is not that a free market wouldn't function well, it's that a free market would result in an allocation that we as a society don't think is fair.
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For the fourth consecutive year, health insurance costs have increased at double-digit rates and at five times the overall rate of inflation. Employers and employees are increasingly unable or unwilling to purchase health insurance coverage as it is currently offered. Part of this problem results from government’s disruption of the marketplace through over-regulation, over-mandating and limiting customer choice of health insurance plans. The Maryland Chamber believes that restoring market competition to Maryland’s health insurance system will improve customer choice, help to control costs and provide greater access to those who want coverage. The Maryland Chamber supports the following steps to help make health care more affordable and available to Marylanders:
Improving our market-based health insurance system, which successfully provides coverage to most Maryland families - - not replacing it with a government-mandated universal health care system;
Supporting efforts of the Maryland Insurance Commissioner to review and modify current laws and regulations to increase competition by encouraging additional insurance carriers to enter the Maryland market;
Reviewing mandates and underwriting requirements that add to the cost of health insurance and limit customer choice; and
Implementing the Limited Health Benefit Plan in July of 2005 as a means of improving customer choice.
