M.I.T. Economist vs Common Sense

Conn Carroll / October 13, 2009

In response to yesterday’s PriceWaterhouseCooper’s study showing that the Senate Finance bill would raise, not lower, health insurance premiums for Americans, M.I.T. economist Jonathan Gruber told the New York Times that the opposite was true.

But think about it for a minute. Imagine if the federal government announced that car insurers had to provide car insurance for any American that applied. Now imagine that the federal government also forced car insurers to charge everyone the same price for car insurance regardless of their driving history. So a texting teen with no driving record would pay the same car insurance rates as a 40 year-old accident-free housewife. A man with two drunk driving accidents would pay the same as … you.

Do you think these new regulations would cause your car insurance to go up, or down? Gruber says down. His reasoning: (more…)