President Biden has taken to the airwaves to sell his plan to crack down on short-term health insurance policies, which he terms “junk.” Taking away the right to choose is not only bad healthcare policy, it runs counter to the spirit of freedom on which this country was founded. 

The history of short-term, limited duration (STLD) policies is straightforward. In order to coerce Americans to use only government approved (Washington controlled) taxpayer-subsidized policies, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) included the individual mandate, an order for all Americans to purchase insurance. Washington restricted STLD policies to non-renewable 3-month plans. The Trump administration expanded public choice by allowing such policies up to 12-months in duration and renewable for three years. Millions of Americans used this affordable vehicle to cover themselves and their families, giving them a viable alternative to expensive and restrictive ACA insurance with its “auto-renewal.”  

Biden wants to quash STLD insurance policies making them illegal, calling them a scam and junk. 

Americans are free to buy junk bonds, including government ones. We are free to buy junk stocks and junk cars. Many happily attend junk events. Shouldn’t the public be able to decide what is junk versus jewel, what is scam and what is savior? Individual Americans are better judges of how to spend their money than Washington. 

In the 2012 challenge to the ACA, NFIB v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court struck down Obama’s individual mandate saying it was unconstitutional to force Americans to purchase what the government commanded them to buy. Now Biden wants to do an end-run and force the public to buy only what Washington allows. If Americans want to have medical insurance, Washington wants to mandate what Americans must purchase. 

Health insurance, any insurance for that matter, is a way to manage risk. A person pays an insurance company a comparatively small amount of money to hedge against the chance the person will need to expend a large amount of money when something unexpected happens, such as a housefire, a flood, or an automobile accident with injuries. Never mind that insurance premiums are already a very large expense, with the average family set to expend $30,065 on healthcare costs this year. More than 80 percent will go to insurance companies. 

The consumer, not the government, should decide how best to spend hard-earned dollars. Over and over, the free market has been proven to offer the most and best of anything – product or service – to the greatest number at the best price. The free market only works when millions of consumers can decide how to spend their money, so they get the best value, as they calculate value. 

With a centrally controlled economy – a non-free market – consumers have no incentive to economize and sellers do not compete for consumer dollars. The result is prices keep rising and service suffers, viz., longer and longer wait times to see a physician. When government controls the “market,” you get the U.S.S.R. with blocks-long waiting lines for toilet paper, shoes, and medical care. 

There is a greater issue than a bad health policy decision by this administration. For years, Washington has been chipping away at American freedom, especially when it comes to medical decision making. The CoViD scam and the imposition of quasi-martial law based on a false existential medical threat is the most recent example. Lockdowns, mask requirements, and mandatory injections of untested gene therapy are demonstrations of government tyranny, the antithesis of Washington protecting constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. 

Directly by law and regulation, and indirectly by proxy, the federal government has taken away medical autonomy piece by piece. Neither doctors nor patients choose their medications–a pharmacy benefits manager does that. Health plans, not physicians and certainly not patients, decide what procedure will be done, by whom, when, and even if. Not only is care prohibitively expensive, but worse, American die waiting in line for care – death-by-queue. 

The ACA sought to take over all health insurance decisions. Trump alleviated Obama’s restrictions somewhat by expanding public choices to include longer STLD health policies. Biden seeks to reverse this and take away another small element of freedom, the right to choose one’s insurance. It is time to begin the reversal process and restore medical freedom, i.e., medical autonomy. 

People should be free to choose whatever insurance policy they deem best for them. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. The consumer should decide which is which, not the government.

Deane Waldman, M.D., MBA is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Pathology, and Decision Science; former Director of the Center for Healthcare Policy at Texas Public Policy Foundation; and author of the multi-award winning book Curing the Cancer in U.S. Healthcare: StatesCare and Market-Based Medicine. 

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