In politics, it seems, bad ideas never die. This week’s Bad Bill of the Week – the first for the 2014 session – dredges up the type of legislative scheme that previously landed a state legislator in prison. Senate Bill 783, sponsored by Ralph Hise (R-Madison), Establish Chiropractor Co-Pay Parity, would require that insurance plans in North Carolina establish co-pays for chiropractors no higher than co-pays for seeing a regular doctor. Have we already forgotten the behavior of Jim Black? Do we not remember his secret meetings in IHOP bathrooms? We don’t know that such hijinks are involved in this SB 783 – but such legislation naturally lends itself to corruption. In this case, chiropractors have a lot to gain through a government mandate that their services become far cheaper for their customers. When politicians create legislation that generates concentrated benefits upon a specific group of people, there is a greater incentive for corrupt activity. These concentrated benefits, of course, would be dispersed among the rest of us in the form of higher insurance premiums. Forcing the many to pay for major benefits of the few continues the shift in power from citizens to the political class. For those “good-government” types who want to eliminate unethical and corrupt behavior by politicians, the real solution is for government to stop meddling in our affairs by dispensing favors and privileges upon politically-connected businesses or industries. Rather than having politicians try to micro-manage all insurance policies in the state, instead the General Assembly should remove state mandates and allow insurance companies and consumers to choose what is best for them. Better still would be to allow consumers to shop for insurance coverage in other states as well. Because it would make everybody pay for the benefit of a politically-connected few, and further incentivize political corruption, Senate Bill 783 is this week’s Bad Bill of the Week.
Having personally read the text of the bill and the applicable existing general statute, the bill merely appends general statute 58-50-30(a3) with a sentence which reads “An insurer shall not impose upon an insured as a limitation on treatment or level of coverage a co-payment amount for services performed by a duly licensed chiropractor that is higher than the copayment amount imposed upon the insured for services performed by a duly licensed primary care physician for a comparable, medically necessary treatment or condition.”
Some years ago I used to have a co-pay BCBS plan, and for whatever reason, BCBS decided to change the classification of chiropractor from “primary care” to “specialist” which caused me to incur a 50% higher co-pay.
My understanding of the proposed bill is that it hopes to return chiropractors to a “primary care provider” level of co-pay. It doesn’t mandate that your or anyone else’s health care policy include chiropractor care. That being the case, your statement about the many paying for the major benefits of the few is unwarranted, if not inaccurate.
I have been a cash-basis chiropractic patient for years now and will remain so, so the bill has no foreseeable effect on me.
I would prefer that government get completely out of the health care industry, with the exception of caring for military service members. But that is a discussion for another time.