Will price caps bankrupt benefits?

National health care reformers considering premium caps on health insurance rarely take into account health insurance underwriters' profitability cycles. A little-understood six year cycle encompassing three years of profits and three years of losses has been occurring regularly since the 1960s. The cycle triggers price cycles that lag about two years behind. Policymakers ought to consider price caps in light of these cycles.
Shortly after Harry Truman created the Council of Economic Advisers in 1946, the story goes, he met with members of the council to seek their advice about prospects for the [...]