As reported late yesterday by the Union Leader, health insurance price controls have been stopped in NH. They should never have been proposed. No free society can afford such irrational and destructive thinking to make its way into a governing body.

Here is the article:

(THANKS Joel Winters!)

IN AN astonishingly clear-headed report, the House Commerce Committee last week recommended killing Senate Bill 220, a bill to establish a committee to decide whether the state should create a commission to impose price controls on health insurance rates.

"For a private business to ask for permission to raise its prices, that flies in the face of the idea of a free market," Rep. Joel Winters, D-Manchester, wrote for the committee. "A fast food restaurant does not need to consult anyone before changing its prices; this allows the industry to stay competitive. Laying more bureaucracy onto the health insurance industry can only result in it passing the cost of compliance onto our constituents through higher premiums, something we all want to avoid."

The bill, up for a vote today, would put the state on the path to creating a Soviet-style commission that would have the power to cap health insurance rate increases regardless of market forces. It is a horrible idea that would wreak havoc in New Hampshire's health insurance market and stifle innovation and competition.