Recently Sun-Times writer Monifa Thomas captured Illinois Gov. Blagojevich’s penchant for mimicking MTV’s Pimp My Ride reality show. After muscling his All Kids health insurance scheme into existence without approval from the state legislature, the governor has not received support in legislative districts. So he has offered 1,000 $50 gas cards to the first 1,000 parents signing up for his All-Kids Plan.
When the state and federal governments create new health insurance mandates, they raise health insurance premiums across the board. Now states are demanding one-size-fits-all government health care when parents could select affordable market-based health insurance options that may not require such a seductive come-on as “free gas” in a $4/gallon environment.
Private affordable options like health savings accounts and employee-based insurance buyer cooperatives eliminate the need to pander for consumers to take the state-financed health care ride to get cost-effective health insurance for all the kids.
Ralph W. Conner ([email protected]) is the local legislation manager at The Heartland Institute.
