What health insurance reform should give us: a cheap, high-deductible catastrophic policy.

Which is exactly what none of the current bills would let us have, according to John Stossel:

Consumers could not buy a cheap, high-deductible catastrophic policy [under any of the existing bills currently floating around the House and Senate]

Read the whole thing.

Last week I asked a customer service rep at Maryland's dominant health insurer* if they sell such a policy. She said no, making it sound as if selling catastrophic insurance without the "basic" plan would be an impossibly difficult feat.

At the end, Stossel adds:

Profit is the key to competition. Anyone who claims to favor competition but looks down at profit has no idea what he is talking about.

Well said.

*CareFirst Blue Cross/Blue Shield