Your healthcare costs are skyrocketing.We’ve talked to a whole lot of North Carolinians and done a whole lot of research; we know that it’s bad out there. Many people blame the Affordable Care Act (you know it as the ACA, or Obamacare) for these increases, but we’re here to tell you about what we can do about the problem on a state level. It’s simple: convince the legislature to stop passing detrimental laws called health benefit mandates.
You many have heard of the ACA’s individual mandate (the rule that everyone has to have health insurance). State mandates aren’t the same thing. They’re just laws that make health insurance companies pay for something. And when insurance companies have to pay, we all have to pay.
Mandates are championed by special interest groups, often at the expense of everyone else’s fiscal health. For instance, one mandate that’s currently on the books in North Carolina forces insurance companies to cover visits to a marriage counselor. Even if you are single or happily married, you still have to pay for this benefit.
Get this: North Carolina has 57 mandates. That means:
That’s terrible news for you.
Why Are Mandates Not the Answer?
Mandates are government intrusion into the free market. They force private businesses — health insurance companies and small businesses that provide health insurance to their employees — to do something that the market does not desire naturally.
Although we understand that some people see mandates that cover services for underprivileged populations as a moral issue, we believe that the opposite argument is true: it’s actually more ethical to secure affordable healthcare for North Carolina’s citizens by limiting mandates than it is to pass them.
How Do Mandates Work?
Here’s an analogy: Let’s say you have basic cable. But after reading all about Game of Thrones, you decide you’re a Lannister fan (shame on you!) and want to watch some HBO. So then — we know you wouldn’t do this, but follow us — you call the cable company and demand access to this channel. They say no, because you’re not paying for it.
Not to be deterred, you lobby the North Carolina General Assembly to get all cable providers to include HBO in basic cable packages. If your legislation passes, the cable company has to provide a more expensive service...to everyone. So what do you think will happen to your cable bill?
Yup. You’ll have to pay more. And so will everyone else — including people who have zero interest in dragons or Iron Whatevers. People who just want to watch the local news while they eat breakfast will be forced to pay for HBO. How is that fair to them?
In the world of mandates, instead of paying for HBO because one guy really wanted it, you’re paying for marriage counseling — and anything else that special interest groups have successfully lobbied for.
The North Carolina Coalition of Fiscal Health is here to raise awareness about unnecessary mandates. Sure, not all mandates are created equal. Sure, some of them seem to address specific issues. But we’re concerned with another issue: you, your family, and your fiscal health. We’ve heard about your difficult fiscal decisions through our travels and conversations, and they’re reflected in our own personal experiences. We know how tough it is to pay for healthcare. And we believe that fighting back against state mandates is the first step towards easing the healthcare cost burden on North Carolina families.
.jpeg)
