Why politicians bash health insurers

Bashing health insurance companies has become all the rage these days.

The Obama administration, congressional leaders and their allies in activist groups and the press have based their health care propaganda on poll numbers indicating that "voters generally like medical providers and generally don't like health insurers," writes John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation in his latest Carolina Journal commentary.

While he doesn't portray insurers as some kind of saints, Hood does offer a point rarely considered in mainstream media discussions of health care policy:

"The existing health insurance industry is not itself a creation of free markets coordinating individual decisions and enterprises. It is the creation of government interference in the market."

Hood makes the case here for how such intrusion has distorted the market, leading to practices that increase costs.

Hood concludes: Since such consumer-driven health care is growing, "Americans may change their perception of health insurers, too. That's one reason the Left must destroy consumer-driven health care and impose government-run health care soon, before it runs out of villains to bash."