Let’s say that you just had an auto accident. Admittedly NOT a pleasant thought around the holidays, but play along with me for a moment.
Perhaps you skidded into a tree, or maybe it was a hit-&-run. You’re not hurt, but your car is decidedly worse-off for the experience. Now, there’s a particular auto body shop which you trust implicitly, and you want them to repair your car.
With me so far?
Here’s the rub: your insurance company informs you that this body shop’s rates are far in excess of the market average in your area, and you’ll need to either (A) pay the difference between what the insurance company has agreed to cover and what the body shop is charging, or (B) find another body shop.
This isn’t an unusual scenario: in my career, I easily saw it hundreds of times. One option that I NEVER saw, however, was the government considering a mandate which FORCED a body shop owner to fix my car at the insurance company’s rate.
I never saw it because it would be ridiculous, and would make a mockery of a free market and private business. Who’d ever want to start a body shop, knowing that the State could essentially order you to work against your will, for a price that you felt was too low? Some folks, maybe, but certainly not the truly talented ones.
Those shop owners, when faced with such a tyrannical option, would themselves opt out and find a different profession altogether. Count on it.
Welcome to Obamacare, everyone:
Two Heads are Better Than One 