The game played by politicians is to take an idea from their own agenda and then frame it in a way that sells it to the other side. When the politicians meet in the middle, bipartisan solutions to problems emerge. This reflects the fact there is no monopoly on good ideas, only simple good solutions to difficult problems. In the healthcare debate, one of the solutions proposed by the GOP was to allow people to buy their insurance across state lines. This sounds a good idea. As the law stands, every state regulates the sale of insurance within its own borders. This limits the size of the market. If insurers had to compete with each other on a regional or national level, the premium rates would fall and every citizen would get a better deal. Well, let’s look a little more closely at how it would actually work.

At present, every state has a Department of Insurance to regulate the insurance companies licensed to sell policies. This is a reasonably effective system for consumer protection. But if regional or national insurers could sell policies into many states, it would break the regulatory system. It would no longer be local supervision of local companies. Insurers would decide where to establish and would, of course, choose the states which had the weakest consumer protection regulations, i.e. where they could make the most profit. Think banks and finance companies. These companies broke the US economy and produced the recession because their sales of subprime mortgages and associated derivatives were unregulated. Now apply the same thing to interstate insurance. As a final thought on this issue, remember all US states have different laws and one state cannot enforce another’s laws. That is sovereignty for you. So the state where an insurer is based cannot protect consumers under another state’s laws.

Secondly, opening the market across state lines allows insurers to cherry pick the best people to insure. Without regulations to limit the right to discriminate against people for pre-existing conditions and to increase premiums as people get older and fall ill more often, insurers will just take their profit from all the healthy people and forget about the rest. Thus, instead of increasing consumer choice, it would have the reverse effect. Most insurance companies would close their branches in individual states. Those that remained would keep all the aging and less healthy people. As their claims rise, the companies will make a loss and close. Without a law to mandate regional or national companies to offer some health coverage, it is likely the number of uninsured people would rise.

When you add all this up, it is a good thing the GOP’s proposal was rejected. Health insurance plans are complicated enough without having to change a whole mass of federal and state laws to allow interstate sales. This is not to say that consumers might benefit if there was more competition in the insurance market generally. With a real free market, properly regulated, consumers would get a better deal both in the terms of coverage and in the premium rates they pay. As it is, you must get multiple quotes to find cheap health insurance. Anticipating their profits will take a hit following this reform, insurers have been raising their premium rates. You must shop around to find the most affordable policy.

Everyone in the US understands the importance of the current healthcare debate. Premium rates are rising across the nation. The WellPoint subsidiaries in California and Indiana raising their rates on individual health plans by up to 39%. The results are inevitable. The number of families unable to afford health insurance is bound to rise dramatically. Estimates vary, but one thing is clear. There are probably less than 50 million Americans without health cover right now. By the end of this year, it will be more than 50 million. It is a sad reflection on the US. This country prides itself on being the best in whatever it does. Yet, when it comes to healthcare, it is one of the worst performing countries in the world. Look at any international comparison and you will see a lower life expectancy and more deaths caused by failures in the healthcare services than almost every other developed nation. Yet the February Healthcare Summit showed the political parties as far apart as ever. There’s no sign of any bipartisan move to improve the situation for the ordinary people of this country. Instead, the GOP want reform stopped in its tracks. How this appeals to voters is hard to understand. Why should anyone vote for a party that wants to keep this present broken system?

Anyway, we now wait to see whether the Democratic Party has the strength of character to pass the reform bill using the budget reconciliation procedure. This allows a bill to become law on a simple majority. If the bill is signed into law, it will begin the slow process of reforming the current reality. But this is going to take more than one year to produce obvious results so, for those of you looking for affordable insurance now, you have to assume there will be no reform bill riding to your rescue like some Marvel hero. This is frustrating but there’s no sense in having false expectations. You have to deal with the world as it is and make the best of it.

This brings us back to the mechanics of this site. Here we have a search engine that contacts all the heath plan providers in your state. As an aside, one ironic point of agreement between the two political parties is that you should be allowed to buy a plan across state lines. Unless and until that becomes the law, you are restricted to buying a plan from an insurer licensed in your own state. This restricts competition and makes it more difficult to find an affordable plan. Because the use of this site is completely free, you can get multiple sets of health insurance quotes, and compare and contrast the plans and their premium rates. Now, more than ever, it’s important to shop around and collect the most information you can about what the market is offering. The more health insurance quotes you collect, the wider the choice and the better the chance of finding an affordable plan. While you search, consider the new power of influence claimed by the Tea Party. They want to tear down big government. It would be good to see some more support for the other side of the argument. With elections coming around later this year, you should get involved and make sure the right message on healthcare reform gets through to Washington. Do not let the negative voice go unanswered. If you want health insurance premiums to fall, make your voice heard and push for reform.