Tenth Amendment Center: To the Governor: North Carolina Passes Bill to Set Stage to Expand Healthcare Freedom
RALEIGH, N.C. (June 29, 2020) – Last Thursday, the North Carolina House gave final approval to a bill that would help facilitate healthcare freedom outside of government insurance regulatory schemes.
I bipartisan coalition of 11 representatives sponsored House Bill 471 (H471). The legislation specifies that direct primary care agreements (sometimes called medical retainer agreements) do not constitute insurance, thereby freeing doctors from the onerous requirements and regulations under the state insurance code. Under the proposed law, “Primary care providers and their agents shall not be required to be licensed or certified under this Chapter to market, sell, or offer to sell direct primary care agreements.”
The bill also includes provisions defining direct primary care agreements and establishing modest requirements.
The House passed H471 by a 111-0 vote in April The Senate approved the measure 46-0 on June 3 with a technical amendment. With the House’s unanimous concurrence on the Senate amendment, the bill now goes to Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk for his consideration.
According to Michigan Capitol Confidential, by removing a third party payer from the equation, medical retainer agreements help both physicians and patients minimize costs. Jack Spencer writes:
“Under medical retainer agreements, patients make monthly payments to a physician who in return agrees to provide a menu of routine services at no extra charge. Because no insurance company stands between patient and doctor, the hassles and expense of bureaucratic red tape are eliminated, which have resulted in dramatic cost reductions. Routine primary care services (and the bureaucracy required to reimburse them) are estimated to consume 40 cents out of every dollar spent on insurance policies, so lower premiums for a given amount of coverage are another potential benefit.”
This represents the kind of cost control Obamacare promised but failed to deliver. In 2015, Tom Woods interviewed a Kansas doctor who utilizes the direct primary care model. Dr. Josh Umbehr’s practice demonstrates the cost savings possible when doctors are unfettered from the bureaucratic health insurance system.
Under Obamacare, regulations define such programs as a primary care service and not a health insurance plan, and current IRS policy treats these monthly fee arrangements just like another health plan.
A FIRST STEP
Even while controlling both houses of Congress, the Republicans never did repeal Obamacare. And if they had passed one of their bills, the changes to the ACA proposed by the GOP would have arguably made things worse. Even with the penalty for not buying health insurance repealed by the Republican tax plan, all other Obamacare rules and regulations remain in place. Regardless, state actions can help completely bring down the Affordable Care Act, or any national healthcare plan the Congress comes up with in the future.
Oftentimes, supporters of Obamacare criticize opponents for not having any alternative. Direct primary care offers one.
These direct patient/doctor agreements allow a system uncontrolled by government regulations to develop. It makes doctors responsive to patients, not insurance company bureaucrats or government rule-makers. Allowing patients to contract directly with doctors via medical retainer agreements opens the market. Under such agreements, market forces will set prices for services based on demand instead of relying on central planners with a political agenda. The end result will be better care delivered at a lower cost.
By incentivizing creative healthcare solutions, the market will naturally provide better options, such as the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, This facility operates completely outside of the insurance system, providing a low-cost alternative for many surgical procedures.
A more open healthcare marketplace within a state will help spur de facto nullification of the federal program by providing an affordable alternative. As patients flock to these arrangements and others spurred by ingenuity and market forces, the old system will begin to crumble.
Enactment of H471 would take the first step toward healthcare freedom in North Carolina and create a stepping stone to further action to nullify the onerous Affordable Care act. With this new law in place, the people of North Carolina could take further steps to fully extricate themselves from Obamacare for good.
WHAT’S NEXT
Gov. Cooper will have 10 days from the date H471 is transmitted to his office to sign or veto the bill. If he does not act, it will become law without his signature.
Mike Maharrey
June 29, 2020 at 06:25AM
