Open Thread

April 22nd, 2010 9:44 AM

Possible discussion point: expanding the bureaucracy to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.

The new health care law imposes federal mandates on what type of benefits insurers have to offer --on top of the requirement that they cover people with preexisting conditions -- all of which will have the affect of driving up premiums. Under the deal struck with the industry, insurers agreed to accept more regulations in exchange for a mandate forcing individuals to obtain insurance as well as hundreds of billions in subsidies for the purchase of their product.

Yet now Democrats are worried that before all of the new changes go into affect in 2014, that insurers will jack up rates in the meantime. Their answer is a proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein that would give the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to reject rate increases deemed unacceptable. It's similar to the idea President Obama presented in his final proposal, but that one had to be dropped because it couldn't be passed through reconciliation.

Did anyone seriously think that ObamaCare was the end?