The Race to the Bottom...

I can't help but wonder, if the health insurers are free to sell across state lines, what is to prevent them from all moving to the states with the laxest regulation, as the credit card companies and banks all did when Reagan and Clinton de-regulated them? Do you ever wonder why all the credit card companies are located in South Dakota, and all the banks in Delaware? It ain't the weather, that's for sure...

The "sell across state lines" premise falsely assumes that health insurers compete by trying to offer a better or cheaper product to consumers. This is fundamentally untrue, due to the virtual monopolies they hold. The way health insurers compete is by trying to spend as little as possible on claims, though denying claims and excluding the sick from their coverage pools. Freeing them to sell across state lines will just allow them to do that more aggressively, and make the denial of claims and rejection of people with pre-existing conditions far worse.