Where Does Your State Rank?

By Paul Hsieh, MD
co-founder Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine

"The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has come up with a
handy guide to rank the 50 US states (plus the District of Columbia)
based on how badly their regulation raise the cost of health
insurance.

Some of the measures include the number of mandates, whether the
state requires "guaranteed issue", community rating, and employer
mandates, whether it allows tax-free use of Health Savings Accounts."

Here's their guide:

"Health Care Policy Cost Index: Ranking the States According to
Policies Affecting the Cost of Health Care"

http://www.sbecouncil.org/uploads/SBEC%20polseries%2033%20-%20SBSI-
Health%5B1%5D%202-3-09.pdf

And their conclusions:

Among the 50 states and District of Columbia, the best 15 states in
terms of state health care policies are:
1) Idaho, 2) Utah, 3) Iowa, 4t) Michigan, 4t) Ohio, 6) Alaska, 7)
South Carolina, 8) South Dakota, 9) Pennsylvania, 10t) Nebraska, 10t)
Wyoming, 12) District of Columbia, 13) Kentucky, 14) North Dakota,
and 15) Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, the worst states are: 37) Minnesota, 38) New Hampshire,
39t) North Carolina, 39t) Rhode Island, 41) Florida, 42) New York,
43) New Jersey, 44) Colorado, 45) Maryland, 46) California, 47)
Vermont, 48) Connecticut, 49t) Maine, 49t) Washington, and 51)
Massachusetts.

Our elected officials talk a great deal about "solving the health
care crisis."

Unfortunately, the origins of the crises can largely be traced back
to governmental policies that raise the costs of health care, and
thereby limit the availability of health care coverage.

If policymakers are serious about having a positive impact on health
care, then significantly limiting the number of mandates and
regulations makes sense at the federal and state levels.

Obviously, I wish Colorado ranked higher than 44th. But at least we
have the examples of lots of other higher-ranked states to point to
in the public policy debate!

http://www.westandfirm.org/blog/2009/02/where-does-your-state-
rank.html