Stirrin' the Health Insurance Mandates Pot over at Online Athens

The Ralph Hudgens saga continues. At least his addition is better that Nathan "Stinky" Deal... oops, I forgot about the $106,000 improperly transferred campaign funds and the $250,000 unreported personal loan he used to defeat Maria Sheffield in the republican primary. 

My bad.

Unlike most Georgian's, I am an avid follower of the political careers of republican Ralph Hudgens and democrat Mary Squires. I'm even involved in it in Libertarian sort of way. They are my opponents after all and I really really want that sweet gig down to the Insurance Commissioner's office just to dig around in the filing cabinets and look at stuff and see what I can find. I bet there's lots of interesting bits and pieces of political chicanery scattered over the last 16 years.

Since Google indicates that it's an "All Ralph Hudgens, All the time" kind of news cycle I thought I'd toss in my two cents worth. There's an article running over at Online Athens that has an outstanding comment trail. I had to join in and the readership is encouraged to participate as well. Here's the post:

Greetings All,

While it's fun to watch the outrage grow over Mary Squires assertions that Ralph Hudgens is a charter member of the He Man Women Haters Club (HMWHC), I feel that that I would be remiss if I did not point out some of the flaws of her stand on Georgia's health insurance mandates. 

I am the Libertarian candidate for the office of Commissioner of Insurance, I am not an insurance professional, I do not operate an insurance lobbying concern like Mary Squires and I sure as hell haven't spent the last umpteen years sitting in the Georgia Senate lording it over the other members of the Senate insurance committee. I am a part time citizen politician engaged in my first run for public office to support the Libertarian party's quest to transition from political body status to full fledged political party with ballot access to every race in Georgia in 2012.

Georgia's 45 health insurance mandates are included in every health insurance policy sold in this state. Every policy. Mary Squires has made a campaign issue out of this by insisting that Ralph Hudgens must hate women because of his less than lucid statements on Georgia's mandate system. That is a communications failure on his part.

I am opposed to our legislature imposing undue insurance burdens on the citizens of Georgia to pay off campaign contributors. I am opposed to rent seeking corporations leveraging their political influence to insure profitable operations through the use of legislative fiat. Georgia's health insurance mandates are the very model of a modern major industry successfully getting paid for nothing.

The question that puzzles me on this issue is that while 10 of Georgia's 33 health coverage mandates are focused on mostly female medical concerns, the other 23 are are still costing every insured woman in Georgia money every month. If you look at the list mandates you will find that set aside coverage for alcoholism and morbid obesity cost the women of Georgia as much money as the 10 mostly female set asides cost everybody else. Why isn't Mary Squires concerned about that. Why isn't she on the "Get rid of the Mandates" bandwagon? Does she not care about womens financial health?

Libertarians stand for smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom. Georgia's state mandated health insurance coverages accomplish none of those goals. If elected I will utilize the bully pulpit of the office of Commissioner of Insurance to educate Georgia consumers on this horribly flawed legislation and seek to have it removed/repealed/rectified and bring choice back to Georgia.

Shane Bruce

Libertarian Candidate for Insurance Commissioner