Arbitrary laws contributing to health-insurance crisis

Jan. 28, 2006 12:00 AM

With "Failing health: A special report," The Republic last week gave readers a valuable primer on this nation's top domestic problem. But it also may have left many readers feeling that they, too, may soon be among the uninsured.

One thing must be understood: The health care crisis in Arizona and America begins and ends on Main Street.

The latest Arizona Small-Business Conditions Report, released last month by the Research Foundation of the National Federation of Independent Business, found that 62 percent of small-business owners in the state either did not offer health care to their employees or chose not to answer the question.

Shamefully, a federal law prohibiting small-business owners from joining together across state lines to form the same large purchasing pools for health care permitted for big corporations is one of the major contributors to the crisis.

But state laws, too, have teamed up to keep millions down.

Two legislative remedies circling the Arizona Capitol would begin to help small businesses.

House Bill 2698 would lift the heavy yoke of state mandates on health-insurance plans off of the backs of small businesses and allow greater consumer choice. Mandates are requirements by states on health insurers to add various procedures to their basic plans before they can be legally sold.

The more mandates, the higher the cost of health insurance. Each new mandate hurts the chances for a small business to buy medical coverage for its employees. Idaho requires only 13 mandates on health insurers, the fewest in the nation; Minnesota, with the most, has 60 requirements; Arizona has 28, according to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance.

House Bill 2177 would provide a health-insurance coupon for workers who are uninsured and earning a low wage and for small businesses with between two and 25 employees. The coupon would be worth up to 50 percent of the annual health care premium cost and be capped at $1,000 for individuals and $3,000 for families annually.

Neither piece of legislation is a panacea for the health care crisis, but each would be an immediate fillip to firms unable to afford health benefits.

But if truth be told, much of the health care crisis is due to a wait-until-it-gets-even-worse competition between ideologues who either want total, European-style socialization of medicine on one side or total employer removal from health care on the other side.

Whichever side you happen to gravitate to, millions of people should not have to suffer in the meantime.