It wasn’t so very long ago that politicians told us managed care was going to be the savior of the health‐care system. President Clinton even designed a health‐care plan that would have forced everyone to join an HMO. The reason was simple: Managed‐care programs were supposed to cost less.
Now those politicians are shocked — shocked! — to discover that one way managed care saves money is by reducing the services it offers and putting restrictions on the types of providers patients can see.
The president’s Advisory committee on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry wants to force insurance to provide those benefits.
If Washington could learn just one lesson, it should be this: There is no such thing as a free lunch. Every time the government imposes a new mandate on insurance, someone has to pay for it.
That someone is going to be you and me.