We’ve never thought of season football tickets as a carrot, nor the loss of them as a stick. But state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland’s game plan for mitigating Oklahoma’s uninsured problem included a suggestion that failure to buy health insurance should result in a penalty and loss of down.
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Loss of tickets or a driver’s license or homestead exemption were suggested as a way to punish those who can buy a health insurance policy but don’t do so. Holland backed down from the idea after a public outcry, saying, "It was one small part of a larger discussion, and it was generally in jest.”
She should know better. Oklahoma’s uninsured rate is no laughing matter. Still, Holland is right in saying that failure to carry an insurance policy, when one is made available, results in shifting costs to policyholders and/or taxpayers.
A better suggestion comes from lawmakers such as state Rep. Kris Steele, co-chairman of a legislative task force on health care. He favors a system in which no one would be forced to have insurance but one in which no one would have an excuse not to — such as giving the uninsured an option to enroll in a subsidized plan when seeking health care.
These citizens would be given a one-time pass on paying for care, in exchange for enrolment. This pay-to-play approach is far better than the carrot/stick method.
Moving the sticks on the uninsured problem may require going for it on fourth down. But let’s not throw the ball too far.
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How about we take the nearly 50% of the insurance tax that flows to the firefighters and Police pension plan (which by the way has allowed them to make those plans so full of frivilous and over the top benefits that they should be ashamed) and use it to lower insurance rates for the poor that are underinsured and who don't qualify for Medicaid. It should be noted nearly half of the uninsured are under the age of 34 and who are in general so healthy that insurance seems unnecessary.
Government regulation of the insurance industry is one of the main reasons medical prices are so high today. Get the government completely out of the health business!
Real incentives? What a crock! Insurance premiums for a family are astronomical. One can have incentive flowing out the ears but that does not increase the amount of money they make, or the employers who can't or won't offer insurance. Regulate the insurance companies, not people. DOK, your paper is so out of touch with reality.
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