Health Care Blog

Benefit and provider mandates in health insurance plans drive up the cost of health insurance. Each state, through either statute or regulatory action, controls the number and type of mandates required in plans sold in that state. Not all mandates are created equal, however. Some add less than one percent to the overall cost of the plan, whereas others such as mental health parity can add 10 percent to the cost. On average, each mandate adds 0.5 to 2.5 percent to the overall price of the insurance plan.

Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott has been a leading opponent of ObamaCare, yet this week he came out in favor of expanding Medicaid in his state through the Affordable Care Act. The reasoning is it is "free money" or "money left on the table if we don't expand" or a "job creator" or expansion will "hold down health care costs." These are all faulty reasons at their worst.

The bottom line is Medicaid expansion is a bribe from the federal government.

The state health insurance exchanges are a big part of the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare. These exchanges will function as insurance brokerages to help customers purchase health insurance that will be subsidized by federal taxpayers. As of this writing, only 18 states, including the District of Columbia, have set up exchanges. The federal government is suppose to establish an exchange for any state unwilling or unable to set up its own.

The deadline for approval of a state exchange by the federal government was January 1, 2013.

The President signed ObamaCare into law three years ago. One of the main goals of the legislation was to hold down the cost of health care in the United States.