Under the bill insurance can be sold across state lines. But what this means is that the INSURER can pick his 'primary state' and be in almost all instances governed by its laws. Think credit cards and South Dakota. Except the bill defines 'State' as including all territories including Jack Abramoff's favorite client the Northern Marianas.
Like those 'Made in the USA' t-shirts actually produced by foreign workers in Chinese-owned sweat-shops in the N. Marianas? Well you are going to love your health insurance plan that is solely governed by the Northern Marianas Insurance Commissioner. More in the extended entry.
This is not a joke. Title III of the Boehner Amendment starting on page 118 lays out in excruciating detail how insurance companies can choose to be regulated by the laws of whatever U.S. territory or dependency they like. And you will love the mandated disclosure language on page 130.
Under this bill employers are allowed to auto-enroll employees in any plan they like (Title II) and while employees can opt-out of that plan there seems to be no other obligation by the employer. Then under Title III those employees are told in explicit terms that their policy is governed solely by the laws of the 'primary state' including all rules about covered benefits. So if you don't like your Northern Marianas O'Boehner you got a couple of choices: Don't get sick. Or die quickly.
(Update) Well it is not quite as bad as I thought, at least not yet. Title III turns out only to govern individual insurance. But nothing in the bill prevents employers from dropping coverage and so dropping individuals into this market while supplying them with a small subsidy that allows them to claim they provide a benefits package including insurance. And of course insurance companies would be bound to try to expand this into first small group and then larger group insurance. But really this is a pretty transparent attempt to sell Americans even further out to the health insurance companies.
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