THE LESSON OF STATE HEALTH CARE REFORMS

The major provisions of ObamaCare already have been tried and they've led to increased costs and reduced access to care

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously envisioned the states serving as laboratories, trying "novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." And on health care, that's just what they've done, says Peter Suderman, an associate editor at Reason magazine.

The results have been dramatically increased premiums in the individual market, spiraling public health care costs, and reduced access to care. In other words: The reforms have failed. New York is exhibit A:

• In 1993, the state prohibited insurers from declining to cover individuals with pre-existing health conditions ("guaranteed issue").
• New York also required insurers to charge those enrolled in their plans the same premium, regardless of health status, age or sex ("community rating").
• The goal was to reduce the number of uninsured by making health insurance more accessible, particularly to those who don't have employer-provided insurance.

It hasn't worked out very well, according to a Manhattan Institute study released last month by Stephen T. Parente, a professor of finance at the University of Minnesota and Tarren Bragdon:

• In 1994, there were just under 752,000 individuals enrolled in individual insurance plans, or about 4.7 percent of the nonelderly population.
• This put New York roughly in line with the rest of the United States.
• Today, that percentage has dropped to just 0.2 percent of the state's nonelderly.
• In contrast, between 1994 and 2007, the total number of people insured in the individual market across the United States rose to 5.5 percent from 4.5 percent.

Despite state-level failures, President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are pushing forward just such 'reforms'...

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