Here's an article I recently published in a special issue of The Regulator (the full issue focused on the health care debate is attached below):

The current economic crisis teaches insurance regulators several key lessons to prevent a wholesale health care meltdown in America. Much like the financial sector, the health insurance sector has made short-term gains its priority rather than the health and well-being of its customers.

As a result, private insurance fails to meet the needs of Americans and is increasingly unaffordable and unsustainable. Insurers have driven up premiums and out-of-pocket costs, putting consumers at financial risk if they need costly health care services or forcing them to go without needed care.

For health care reform to work there must be the type of federal oversight and consumer protections required of the financial sector under the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). The creation of the Health Choices Administration (HCA), as outlined in proposed HR 3200 (a.k.a. America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009), is critical.

On November 7, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed landmark health care reform legislation after months of negotiations and despite some really outrageous lies by opponents of any efforts to redress corporate malfeasance. Only a single Republican, Congressman Joseph Cao of New Orleans, "the Good Joe," was willing to defy his party's command and vote for the bill, along with 219 Democrats, giving the bill two votes more than it needed to pass. Upon the historic vote, the Good Joe said: "I read the versions of the House health reform bill. I listened to the countless stories of Orleans and Jefferson Parish citizens whose health care costs are exploding – if they are able to obtain health care at all. Louisianans need real options for primary care, for mental health care, and for expanded health care for seniors and children."