Hey, Congressperson: do you want to promote or inhibit competition?

One of the primary goals cited for health-care reform (especially by President Obama) is the need to promote more vigorous competition in the health insurance industry. Ironically, the health-care reform bills under consideration in the House and Senate would impose the opposite of competition. They would forbid real choice. In place of the variety of products that competition now generates, the bills would force us to "choose" among virtually identical insurance plans. Government would define these plans down to the last detail. Everyone would be required to have at least the same "basic" coverage, including physical exams, maternity benefits, well-baby care, alcoholism treatment and mental-health services. Consumers could not buy a cheap, high-deductible catastrophic policy. Every insurance company would have to use an identical government-designed pricing structure. Prices would be the same for sick and healthy. In HR 3200, provisions to create a "public option" would deliver a government insurance plan that is identical in every way to the mandated private insurance plans. Will you vote for a health-care reform bill that is designed to destroy competition in the name of promoting competition?