# Why did Democrats choose to outlaw the best insurance plans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 16, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-choose-to-outlaw-the-best-insurance-plans/676507 "2013-12-16T22:20:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-choose-to-outlaw-the-best-insurance-plans/676507/101 "2013-12-19T20:42:06Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > … > To answer the question yet again, a shabby plan is one that does not have the provisions mandated by the ACA. No, I don’t give a damn that you’re 90, female, unmarried, and have had a hysterectomy. You still need maternity leave in your health care. Everyone needs the same minimum plan. Its what will reduce costs for everyone overall and is a good plan. Any plan that you’re paying for that doesn’t cover the minimum, just like any car built now that doesn’t come with seat belts, should be illegal… The PPACA requires certain preventative care screenings be provided to qualified insureds, with no copay, coinsurance, or deductible. A compliant plan must pay for [newborn screenings](https://www.healthcare.gov/what-are-my-preventive-care-benefits/#part=3) for [PKU](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylketonuria) but does not have to pay for newborn screening for [biotinidase deficiency](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotinidase_deficiency). PKU can cause profound, irreversible mental retardation. BD can cause permanent hearing loss, among other symptoms. Both are completely treatable, by diet for PKU and by vitamin supplementation for BD. Newborn screening for PKU is required in all 50 states not all states require screening for BD. The government’s own experts, the Discretionary Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children in the US Department of Health and Human Services [recommends](http://www.hrsa.gov/advisorycommittees/mchbadvisory/heritabledisorders/recommendedpanel/) screening all newborns for both conditions as a part of the core panel of newborn screenings. The decision to cover one and not the other as a minimum essential benefit is arbitrary. The PPACA would have you believe that a plan that has PKU screening but not BD screening is good but a plan that covers BD screening but not PKU is shabby. Right. :rolleyes: Screen high risk population for diabetes - required coverage. Screen high risk population for glaucoma - not required. Plans are either compliant or non-compliant with the requirements of the PPACA. The requirements for a plan to be compliant are not the very definition of a good plan. ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-choose-to-outlaw-the-best-insurance-plans/676507/102 "2013-12-19T21:22:12Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > I’m afraid you’ve lost me. You seem to be saying that before Obamacare, Sue Klinkhamer was “shifting her costs to the rest of us”, you were “subsidizing” her health care, and that she was “leeching off your wallet”, but that after Obamacare that won’t be true. That doesn’t make any sense at all. Most defenders of the law are proud of the fact that things work the other way around. What I mean is that pre-Obamacare, we were subsidizing health care in the most expensive way possible. Obamacare is designed to bend the cost curve, and make the subsidies less expensive. People are going to shift costs to the rest of us. Obamacare is designed to make that cost shift less expensive on all of us. Now, I have my own doubts about whether or not it will work that way in the long run, but the underlying theory works decently at controlling costs in Switzerland, so I’m okay with letting Obamacare play out. But when I am paying for people’s health care, I have little patience for people who demand that I pay for their health care in the most expensive way possible. ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-choose-to-outlaw-the-best-insurance-plans/676507/103 "2013-12-19T21:29:38Z")
I’m probably bringing a bit too much of my personal experience into this thread. It’s just the 3 friends I mentioned earlier (2 of whom are no longer friends) all thought that they were actually paying for their own health care, when in reality, their health care plan was really private insurance until the caps were reached, then Medicaid and bankruptcy (after their money runs out). They had cost-shifting to the rest of us baked into their plans, and then had the nerve to demand that we do nothing to control those costs. It’s infuriating. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-choose-to-outlaw-the-best-insurance-plans/676507/104 "2013-12-19T22:07:09Z")
The obvious reason to disallow insurance plans with no employee co-pay or deductible is to contain costs - making consumers pay for part of their health care bill acts as way to keep some form of cost containment incentives in place. It doesn’t surprise me at all if Obamacare disallowed such policies. ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-choose-to-outlaw-the-best-insurance-plans/676507/105 "2013-12-19T22:58:43Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > I may, for all I know, have had health insurance in the past that covered maternity care and pap smears and other things that I, as a man, can’t use, and that’s just fine with me. But I think it’s understandable that some people would be pissed when the government requires all health insurance to cover a long list of things and thereby drives the cost of insurance up. I just wanted to respond to this bit too. Unless a guy is a virgin and will be a virgin for the rest of his life, I could give a rats’ ass that he has to buy a policy which covers pap smears or maternity leave. If someone is a lifelong virgin, they have my sympathies, but it would probably cost more than it’s worth to figure out everyone’s virgin status. ---
**Author:** ![Kaioshin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/35a633/32.png) [@Kaioshin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaioshin)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-choose-to-outlaw-the-best-insurance-plans/676507/106 "2014-04-23T20:00:11Z")
Sorry for the necro. Lets see if we can get the government to give us an official response on this one: ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-democrats-choose-to-outlaw-the-best-insurance-plans/676507/107 "2014-04-23T20:57:30Z")
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