Anti-regulating Republican happily cooks up new regs


ACA1

When a conservative says they’re against government regulations, what they really mean is they’re against government regulations that protect consumers. Regulations hurting the regular guy are just fine with them. Case in point, this clown:

Atlanta-Journal Constitution — “Let me tell you what we’re doing (about ObamaCare),” Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens bragged to a crowd of fellow Republicans in Floyd County earlier this month: “Everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”

After pausing to let applause roll over him, a grinning Hudgens went on to give an example of that obstructionist behavior, this one involving so-called “navigators” who are being hired to guide customers through the process of buying health insurance on marketplaces, or exchanges, set up under the federal program.

“We have passed a law that says that a navigator, which is a position in that exchange, has to be licensed by our Department of Insurance,” Hudgens said. “The ObamaCare law says that we cannot require them to be an insurance agent, so we said fine, we’ll just require them to be a licensed navigator. So we’re going to make up the test, and basically you take the insurance agent test, you erase the name, you write ‘navigator test’ on it.”

Stuff like this will become more and more widespread and shows the lengths conservatives will go to, i.e., violating sacred principles of free market libertarianism is not an issue, if they can stop one hard working person from getting life saving medical treatment.

Comments

  1. says

    How is it that these people do not have twirly moustaches and large black hats, as I was given to understand would be the case by my childhood schooler, Dudley Doright?

    I mean, this is evil, isn’t it? Just evil. And I’ll bet he goes to church every Sunday and makes a big show of how prayerful he is. Bleah.

  2. says

    if they can stop one hard working person from getting life saving medical treatment

    Or a willing unemployed person a job as a health care navigator (but government can’t create jobs).

    What’s more outrageous than the fact Republicans are doing stuff like this, is that they’re so brazen about it. They don’t even bother to hide it, or put up some half plausibly deniable front, but are doing it openly, bragging about it.

  3. says

    Speaking of navigators, what do you suppose the qualifications would be for that entry level job? How about someone with a degree in math, who was insurance licensed and has years of experience in the field, but is now out of it with no interest in pushing people to a particular company’s policy, and who happens to be the top performer in a customer service job now which entails helping people navigate confusing, complicated websites? Let’s throw in they can reach a 100,000 people with a single post and put 10,000 eyeballs on any webpage HHS or healthcare.gov deems useful.

    Well, it wouldn’t be me, because I have all those things and more, and yet somehow, I’m still not qualified.

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