Insurers Soon to Become Public Utilities

Just as many Republican pundits predicted, Democrats are already trying to concoct legislation to regulate insurance premiums now as they know costs will increase once ObamaCare takes effect. Senator Feinstein is proposing that the government regulate premium adjustments as it regulates public utility "companies." Basically, utilities must ask for Congress's blessing whenever they seek to raise rates, making them completely beholden to Washington.

How did the insurance companies, who acquiesced in this horrendous legislation, not see this coming? They agreed to allow the imposition of mandates on the type of benefits they must offer on top of agreeing to cover preexisting conditions despite knowing premiums would be driven higher because they believed their increased risk would be offset by government subsidies and the mandate forcing individuals to obtain insurance.

So, to make sure the insurers are completely under their thumbs, Feinstein wants to give the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to reject rate increases effective immediately. She even said that she believed that health insurers should be regulated like a public utility. At least they're not blatantly lying anymore about their intentions to create government-run healthcare. The problem is, their controls will cause a decrease in the standard of care which will be felt by all. They will, of course, introduce more government intervention to correct those problems, and so on. This bill is more evidence (as if we needed it) that congress must repeal the legislation before 2014.