Tillis & Co. Introduce Bill to Protect Obamacare Mandate

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Thom Tillis (RINO-NC) rarely, if ever, makes news for much else besides pushing ‘bipartisan’ legislation that advances the Left’s agenda at the expense of Republican principles. True to form, the former N.C. House Speaker is getting coverage for the introduction of the ‘Protect Act‘ in the U.S. Senate. The bill would force insurance companies to offer coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, and prohibit them from charging higher premiums to those customers.

Thus, the Protect Act is protecting one of the central pillars of Obamacare. Admittedly, coverage for those with pre-existing conditions is one of the more popular aspects of Obama’s government takeover of health insurance, and that’s exactly why Tillis is pushing the issue ahead of what promises to be a tough re-election battle for the unpopular RINO.

It makes sense that such a mandate has support, especially among those with pre-existing conditions. However, we must be honest about what such coverage actually is, and what it does to health insurance prices in general.

If you have a pre-existing condition, and the federal government forces an insurance company to cover you, what you get is not actually insurance at all. Instead, this is a government mandate for care because incurring the cost of healthcare is no longer a risk for the insurer, it is a certainty. It equates to forcing car insurers to offer coverage to those whose cars are already wrecked.

With such certainty of costs forced by government mandates comes the necessary consequences. The laws of economics do not benevolently skip over the health insurance industry. For every person with pre-existing conditions an insurer is forced to accept into their pool, the premiums go up for everyone else. The proliferation of government mandates in health insurance coverage over the past decades have been a huge contributing factor to the gut-wrenching rise in insurance premiums. Here Tillis is seeking to protect one of the central pillars of Obamacare. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is a co-sponsor.

It should go without saying that people with health problems should be afforded access to quality care, but government mandates don’t accomplish this by and large. Reducing government mandates, entitlements, and regulation, opening health insurance up to competition, bringing price transparency, and allowing healthcare providers to expand unhindered by arbitrary government interference is what leads to lower prices and increased access.

Undoubtedly, if you have a pre-existing condition, guaranteed cost coverage is a comforting thing. But ask yourself this: has government involvement, whether it be mandates or new entitle programs, ever made care or insurance more affordable?

We need more champions of the dozens of free market solutions to bring down the price of healthcare and health insurance for all people, not more guaranteed coverage via Big Government diktat.