And also are trying to gaslight us all, once again, in trying to redefine our common language out from underneath us AGAIN. Sorry, once Government has stepped into the Private Sector and ORDERS it to do something, that marketplace has just become an extension of Government.
No, ifs and buts about it.
And of course, the Concord Monitor is flying cover for them and their coercive bill SB319. Operative Question: WHOSE money are they using for an incentive? Complementary Question: is it VOLUNTARY? Reformatted, emphasis mine:
After months of nudges and education, a new bill uses a novel strategy to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations in New Hampshire – a monetary incentive. The legislation, Senate Bill 319, would require health insurance companies to offer a “wellness financial incentive” to clients who voluntarily provide proof of coronavirus vaccination. At a Thursday morning Senate HHS Committee meeting, primary sponsor Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, a Nashua Democrat, said the bill is intended to reduce the financial burden on hospitals and to prevent a rise in health insurance premiums as a result of costly COVID hospitalizations.
Well, now we know the answer to both questions: Not theirs. No. And here’s the gaslighting with which they want to show “Hey, we BELIEVE in the power of people making their own decisions via the FREE Market! (as opposed to Government requiring something)”. So, here’s the Lying Through Her Teeth bit (this would be Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, a Nashua Democrat, and Prime Sponsor of the bill):
“This bill is a classic free-market solution, offering a financial incentive for people to make an informed choice in their relationship with the insurer,” she said…Even though participation would be voluntary and unvaccinated Granite Staters would not be penalized under this bill, several members of the public said they felt the legislation was discriminatory…
You wouldn’t know a “free market” solution if it bit you in your prodigious posterior and then syringed itself into your flabby bicep. This “free-market solution” wouldn’t exist if the bill didn’t require that the insurer do something they otherwise wouldn’t. YOU are setting up a Government Market in which the largest and most important decision has already by Government Elected Officials who decided that THEY had a good idea. They are going further in making the insurance industry into just another quasi-Government entity.
After all, Mussolini showed the way in that you didn’t have to OWN the means of production to CONTROL the means of production via regulation. And once you control it, who needs to own it?
Sorry, leaving the “lesser” decisions to be “voluntary” between the company and the insured is NOT a “free marketplace.” These Democrats are holding the insurance companies hostage to their will of “this is a good idea, and we have no problem in demanding other people pay for it.”
The essence of a free market is an entirely voluntary transaction between two traders/people with no coercion needed. Once Government has inserted such coercion into the equation, nothing is voluntary.
The Democrat sponsors (Sponsors: (Prime) Rosenwald (D), Prentiss (D), Watters (D), Whitley (D), Donna Soucy (D), Sherman (D), D’Allesandro (D), Cavanaugh (D), Kahn (D), Perkins Kwoka (D), Weber (D), Marsh (D), Woods (d), Kirk (D)) from both the NH Senate and House understand this implicitly and are just hoping that you’ll look at it as “Hey, look what Government is giving you – FREE MONEY!” and not ask any question whatsoever.
You know, like The Pravda on the Merrimac reporter, Teddy Rosenbluth failed to do. Not one single challenge to the underlying supposition. Not wanting to lose that access, Teddy?
And what’s with Republican James Allard (R) from Pittsfield in signing on as a Sponsor? Seriously – from the Party whose Platform states that it believes in the Free Market?
We believe in free people, free markets, and free enterprise.
Being part of a Government that says “you’re too stupid to be allowed to make your own decisions is none of the above.” Oh, yeah – then there’s Jeb Bradley…sigh…
The purpose of having standards is just not to have something written down just so that you can point to it and go, “yeah, screw that.” Hey, Allard, why not just be intellectually honest and “Pull a Marsh,” eh? He moved from being an R to a D over “vaxxing.” Now we can add economic illiteracy to that.