The House Bill’s Health Insurance Czar

Posted July 18th, 2009 at 12.00pm in Ongoing Priorities.

If you dig through the giant 1,018-page House Democrats’ Tri-Committee Health Bill, you’ll find a new “czar.” The bill would place a federal “Health Choices Commissioner” at the helm of the newly-created Health Choices Administration. The Administration would run a brand new national health insurance exchange. For one official, the Commissioner would exercise enormous control over health insurance. While the House sponsors of the bill want the Commissioner to keep closer watch over the insurance industry, this amounts to an enormous concentration of power in one person.

It would also undermine the ability and the independence of the states to embark on their own health insurance market reforms.

In his testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee, Robert Moffit, Director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, stated,

Finally, I would note that the draft bill vests extraordinary power in the hands of the Commissioner, including the power to decide what state or group of states can or cannot set up or manage or maintain a state health insurance exchange. Federalism is a remarkable constitutional achievement. It means that the national government and the state governments are each supreme in their respective constitutional spheres; that the encroachment of one upon the other violates the spirit of federalism, the unique division of power enshrined in our Constitution. This is not a federal state partnership; it is federal domination of the states. It is also a prescription that could, and probably would, undermine much needed innovation in the provision of new health insurance options.

Currently, state regulators oversee insurance. State regulations may be imperfect, but the submission of state authority to the decisions of a single federal official is not the right answer. The House bill would constitute not only an unprecedented expansion of the federal government’s power, but also unnecessary intrusion into an area traditionally reserved for the states. In a free society, there should be no such concentration of power.

Author: Julius Chen
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July 19, 2009 william spriggs, san rafeal, ca writes:

Conservatives should be promoting a positive alternative health care reform proposal based on the Swiss plan? It is demonstrated to work in the real world vs the Democrat’s bureaucratic nightmare and includes portable individual choice plans, universal coverage, private insurance & get employers out of the picture. Additional benefits might be to help reduce the catastrophic Medicare deficit & make illegal immigrants help pay for part of their health care costs.

Who would not vote for that!

William Spriggs
San Rafael, Ca

July 19, 2009 harvey oklahoma writes:

czar..aword used in russia to identify their dictayor in the eighteenth century.does that explainwhy obama insist on calling his appointees.when he get all these bills passed and make no mistake he will unless the people in this country stop him.he will start the process of slowly doing away with elections,which these bills are the begening of.when this happens he will insist on being called czar hussein obama.its happening

July 19, 2009 Richard Burnam, Albuquerque, NM 87120 writes:

Is there, or not, any scientific hard evidence of “global warming”? It seems that there is only the liberal view that the subject is supported dead on by many noted scientists. So I come to Heritage for some answers.

Thank you.

Richard Burnam

July 19, 2009 Jo,Mich writes:

Boy, a few more Czars to control us and we won’t need the Congress or any State governments. Very troubling.

July 20, 2009 Click,Utah writes:

Amen to your statement Jo. We need to let of our nation know
what a snake in the grass of a PRESIDENT we having leading down the wrong path. We need to put up big STOP sign lets stop OBAMA.
Don’t worry about what he says. but what he does.

July 20, 2009 Another Czar « Justbkuz writes:

[...] July 20, 2009 in Who Killed John Galt | Tags: czars, health care reform, Obama, Obamacare From The Foundry, The House Bill’s Health Insurance Czar [...]

July 20, 2009 Eric McBride writes:

It’s great to see everyone posting about about the truth finally. Too bad half of you voted for Obama already.

July 23, 2009 The House Bill’s Health Insurance Czar « Conservative Thoughts and Profundity writes:

[...] The House Bill’s Health Insurance Czar Posted in Heritage.com by nhiemstra on July 23, 2009 via: Heritage [...]

July 23, 2009 Roger S., Ma. writes:

Czar? Who started on the road to giving such, in an American sense, utterly inappropriate job titles to these people? Worse, we now have several of these. Was it some left-spun MSM types who did this? Their editors ought to fire them, or the owners the editors, or “we the people” the owners.

We need neither these Eastern European constructs, nor the violation of Constitutionally guaranteed States’ rights they stand for. The only regulation we would need is that if the same insurance company or its controlling organization did business in more than one state, then their products would need to become “portable” between these states. That would be in keeping with the Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause, and would help competition to keep everybody honest.

Above all, no citizen needs the subjugation through Administrative Law-powers that these guys will embody. It’s nothing other than a Federal Executive Branch power grab. Worse, as I understand it, even when in the future WH occupancy changes, as I hope and trust it will, these folks and their fellow “apparatchicks” will remain. They will become the true informal “rulers” of America and all Americans, accountable to nobody and nothing except their own bureaucratic logic or lack thereof, presumably mostly the latter. This is a horror-scenario of the first order. We should leave such shenanigans to the Europeans. They’re more experienced at this and still can’t make it work properly or efficiently. From that fact alone we should all abstract the proper lesson.

August 1, 2009 Healthcare Headlines « NWI Patriots Blog writes:

[...] The House Bill’s Health Insurance Czar [...]

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