Mike Pence Doesn’t Understand Health Insurance Exchange or FEHBP
Another one form the annals of “Mike Pence isn’t very bright” comes to us courtesy of my colleague Igor Volsky who observes this to-and-fro in which Rep. Pence says people should buy health insurance the way members of congress do, and then proceeds to condemn “government-run” health insurance exchanges:
Republicans believe that in addition to tort reform what we should allow Americans to do is to purchase health insurance the way members of Congress can, the way all federal employees can and that is to buy health insurance across state lines to get out there and allow new insurance products to be created in a new competitive marketplace…even the private insurance elements in the Exchanges, you know, are essentially government controlled and government dictated.
This is not—at all—an accurate description of how members of congress get their health insurance. Members of congress purchase health insurance via the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program which we had occasion to discuss yesterday. This operates, essentially, the way the Health Insurance Exchange works in the major reform proposals. A large potential pool of customers is assembled that’s very attractive to insurers. But in order to get at the customers, you have to play by certain rules. As Volsky says “private insurers participating in FEHBP cannot deny coverage to applicants with pre-existing conditions, charge exorbitant out of pocket fees, rescind coverage or discriminate based on gender or age.” In other words, they’re subject to similar regulatory mandates as would be put in place in the Exchange.
If federal employees were simply invited to buy health insurance across state lines, they would presumably just all be stranded on the dysfunctional individual insurance market. Pence doesn’t sit on any of the committees relevant to health care or to federal personnel management, which perhaps explains why he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. At the same time, that only raises the question of why he’s talking about this on television at all.
25 Responses to “Mike Pence Doesn’t Understand Health Insurance Exchange or FEHBP”
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September 2nd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
He is talking about this on television because there is no one on television interviewing him who is competent or knowledgeable enough to contradict him when he ventures into idiocy and/or falsehood on these issues. He does it because he can.
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
It strikes me that part of the problem with the modern debate about any legislation is that these things have to be written like laws. Unfortunately, you can’t write a law that says “Americans can now purchase health insurance the way members of Congress can.” Instead it has to define things, refer to existing laws, etc., and so even when a law does something they want they still denounce it as evil government and complain about how many pages it is. It’s a government run by the kid who flunked 10th grade English.
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
To clarify, the problem is not with how laws have to be written- they’ve always been written that way- but with letting the high school dropouts dominate the debate and/or be members of Congress.
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Screw committees, the guy gets his own health insurance through the FEHBP; he should have some inkling of how it works. What a dunce.
I don’t think that buying insurance across state lines is a bad idea in principle, but I doubt Pence has the same model in mind as I do. The regulatory structure would have to change; with very strict federal regulations (to prevent companies from setting up in a no-reg state) and nationwide risk pooling, it might work pretty well; though I suppose the exchanges are intended to accomplish roughly the same thing.
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Furthermore, the consistent premiums and benefits across state lines for FEHB are very different from a deregulated market in which one or two states would whore themselves out as corporate bases like South Dakota with credit cards.
But yes, the real problem here is that these appearances are like blind people discussing ballet. It’s not just that the interviewers don’t understand the workings of FEHB; the congresscritters most willing to appear on the cabloids don’t either.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
I think this is less of a case of Pence being an idiot than of him being a lying bastard. The idea that these guys get insurance on the independent market, or that a Senator would be unaware of this fact, is truly preposterous.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I agree with mpowell here. I believe we should be careful about calling the opposition stupid when what they happen to be stupid about is very politically convenient to them. Why on earth would you assume that Mike Pence (or any Republican, for that matter) is being earnest?
Barbara Bush once said her son George is “stupid like a fox.” I think that is a trick a lot of these supposedly dumb Republicans have worked very hard to pick up.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
So the President is going to speak to a joint session of Congress on September 9th…
Though he will inevitably get positive coverage for whatever he utters, I think that this is a tremendously stupid idea. Not only are people getting Obama fatigue from the constant media barrage, he’s literally fighting gravity when it comes to his constantly evolving health care priorites.
I guess the last time a President spoke to a joint session of Congress, we were in a war. Trying to push through a shitty health care idea isn’t anywhere in the same league, and people will tune it out…while simultaneously wondering why the President is on prime time television once again.
This is going to backfire on him and drag him down in the polls even further. Folks have spoken (which is why the left is having to put so much effort into this). People want change, but they want reasonable change. Radical/crazy change rubs them the wrong way whether they love their health care or hate it.
I realize that some of you will accuse me of having an agenda…Nope…I have no control over the President or what he decides to do. I just call it as I see it. This is going to demonstrate once and for all just how little support the left has on this issue. If there really was an impetus to do all of these crazy things, it would have been done by now. You don’t call a joint session of Congress on something that isn’t a threat to the U.S. or that everyone believes in.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm
This is like Bush doing all of those speeches at military bases when the news was getting bad in Iraq. Nobody bought that dog and pony show, and no one is going to buy this one. You don’t politicize a Presidential act like this. It’s no different than the boy that cried wolf.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I think a lot of the people that Matt calls stupid are actually just bullshit artists. Just because you don’t care enough about the truth to lie doesn’t mean you are stupid. Bullshit is easier, you just spout whatever serves your purposes at the moment – in this case badmouthing Democratic plans on TV.
The way the game is played you don’t have to be right.
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Rob Mac,
No, Mike Pence is stupid. The problem for the democrats though is that they’re proving to be even stupider. I mean, how is it that the democrats are beginning to cede back everything that they won? The only way that they could give power back to the Republicans (especially after how disasterous Bush was) was to fuck up the country even more than he did. I mean, most of us on this page would be in agreement that Bush is one of the worst Presidents in history…That to me is incredible that the left is literally reaching a point in the American people’s eyes where they’re viewed as worse than the alternative.
You guys really ought to listen more to people like me. My kingdom for an opposition party!
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
So why didn’t the Democrats just propose to open up the FEHBP
to every individual and every employer in the country with subsidies for lower-income people and a public option? Wouldn’t that have been easier to explain than the new exchanges? Am I missing something obvious?
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Please: It’s Tuppence, not Pence.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Neither party is honest with the public. Pence is the latest putz to offer his team’s dishonest side.
Even worse than distorting Congressmen are the ignorant talking heads employed by either side. Volsky & Yglesia belong in that group. Matt’s projections show 55 million leaving employer sponsored coverage for ?. It remains to be seen if that’s union negotiated group policies or that dreaded individual market.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:31 pm
You guys really ought to listen more to people like me. My kingdom for an opposition party!
You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s the Democrats complaint. They’ve been the majority party for the last 75 years and still are today. And it’s the Republican party that acts as a one way ratchet towards more government corruption and fewer civil liberties.
While I agree that you may be right about the political impact of Obama’s upcoming speech, you have the details all wrong. We could debate endlessly whether the public supports robust health care reform or not, but it is clearly the case that the most representative body, the House, supports more robust form then either 60 senators and possibly even the president. It’s a pretty strong case that the problem with health care reform is not ‘extremism’ (which description is why liberals would never be advised to take your advice seriously), but obstructionism by a Senate minority.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
They are so crazy and evil (if that’s possible) it isn’t funny anymore.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I’m sorry; they have been crazy and evil since Nixon’s Southern Strategy. They were crazy and evil then, they were crazy and evil when they were arming terrorists overseas to get money to pay for terrorists down south, they were crazy and evil when they invaded Panama for no rational reason (and were blunt enough to tell us that it was “Just ‘Cause”), they were crazy and evil when they impeached a President over oral sex, and they were crazy, evil, and just plain monstrous when they started murdering innocent Iraqis for reasons they still can’t fucking explain.
Republican crazy and evil stopped being funny when Nixon was bombing Cambodia into the arms of the Khmer Rouge.
September 2nd, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Mike Pence is one of the stupidest people in Congress, period.
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Actually, stupid rightwingers backing us into a socialist plan for federal employees – not bad! Making that the public option might be just right. We could call it the Karl Marx Pence plan. Cool.
Of course, as the right has decided that medicare isn’t a government program, my first choice will go to the expand medicare to every age group plan. After all, the government ain’t even involved in it – that’s what rush says, and he got it from Jesus. So its expansion would be a triumph for capitalism.
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
With Pence and Huckabee backing a Federal insurance for all plan, simply accept it. Now. Straight up.
And no gloating.
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:00 pm
mpowell,
Steny is starting to move back from the crazy option…
Houston, we have a problem.
There’s not much of a debate here. As for your comment about the Republican party, totally agree with you. Both parties are composed of morons and neither is an effective opposition party.
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
But, the attraction to the health insurers is that FEHB offers a “good” risk pool–they are employed by a an employer who won’t go bust, yet; they are employed, so reasonably healthy; are in a disciplined employment situation. Hell, anybody can insure them.
Now, make FEHB for everyone, regardless of employment or health status, watch the insurers head for the exits. America cannot offer everyone, regardless of health status or risk unlimited health care, everyone would like to, but it is a mirage.
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Mike K shows himself to be a typical Republican fuckwit. Someone who thinks that only the well off deserve health insurance and someone who thinks that the experiences of other nations have nothing to teach us.
Any amount of money to murder foreigners, but god help you if you think we should do for the needy.
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:36 am
Gee, Mike, I wonder how every other developed country in the world manages it. And cheaper. With better results. I guess it’s a mirage.
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 am
Shorter Mike K: “the United States is a third-world country, and I’m proud of it!”
But whack that “unlimited healthcare” strawman, will ya? Whack it hard, Mr Government Health Care flyboy!