Should picking health coverage that suits you be a crime?

June 26, 11:17 AMCivil Liberties ExaminerJ.D. Tuccille

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Many years ago, I lived in Massachusetts (hey, we all make mistakes). After dropping out of law school, I worked a variety of odd jobs, including housepainter, freelance editor and paid medical guinea pig. While interesting work, it was surprisingly short on benefits. Aware as I was of the dangers of sharing the streets of Boston with drivers trained in the Bay State, I signed up for an affordable health plan with a high deductible -- $2,500, if I remember correctly. I called it "getting hit by a truck" insurance. These days, Massachusetts lawmakers call it "illegal."

Since January of this year, health plans with deductibles over $2,000 have been strictly verboten in Massachusetts. It's all part of the state's master plan to "reform" health care by reducing people's choices -- and, incidentally, making health care coverage more expensive.

You see, the reason I chose a high-deductible policy is that it made sense for me. I was a twenty-something in good health. I could field the cost of the occasional minor bug or injury. But I didn't want to be blindsided by a serious illness or bankrupted by the sort of accident I had a few years later, when I hit an oil slick and crashed a motorcycle in Harvard Square (I guess I was the Bay State driver to worry about after all).

I wasn't the only one who found that sort of plan attractive. Plenty of people liked the relatively low premiums that came from budgeting for small medical expenses while being covered for the unexpected.

Of course, "high"-deductible coverage is still available in Massachusetts, but it's capped at 2K -- and, because of inflation, that's a lower ceiling than it would have been when I thought $2,500 sounded pretty good.

Maybe two grand sounds high enough for you. But that's your choice -- it certainly wasn't mine. And the state's new mandate not only eliminates an option that plenty of people found attractive, it also raises the cost of health coverage. Lower-deductibles cost more than high deductibles, so people denied the right to purchase plans they prefer find that their remaining options cost them more out of pocket than they would have otherwise paid.

That's the problem with government-imposed "reform" of anything. The only reason to use government power is that it comes backed by courts and cops who can make people do things they wouldn't otherwise do. Occasionally, reform can mean reining in mandates imposed in the past. More often, though, it means creating rules that limit people's choices.

And, very often, fewer choices mean higher costs. That's a price in liberty as well as dollars

The Independence Institute has a good video take on exactly this problem. You can take a peek at it below.

email J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com