One of the key gripes about health insurance is the cost. Democrats claim that is their goal, as well as covering the uninsured.

But do they really want to save you money?

Allowing insurers to sell across state lines is a key tenet of the Republican healthcare platform, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made it a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Proponents argue that interstate sales would enable insurers to customize policies to individual customers’ needs, ignoring state benefit mandates they view as overly burdensome.

Like auto insurance.  Certain liability coverage is mandated by law. The rest is personal choice.

Is the auto insurance business, which competes across state lines, falling apart? No.

Democrats, on the other hand, generally oppose interstate sales and have defeated earlier efforts in Congress to allow them. Opponents fear that allowing insurers to sell across state lines would trigger a “race to the bottom,” in which insurers compete to sell bare-bones policies at the lowest price, lacking benefits such as maternity care.

So a single male should be forced to buy a policy that covers child birth? Or a gay couple? Or seniors? How will that lower costs?

Interstate sales “is insurance code for picking their rules,” said Jerry Flanagan, patient advocate for Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog. “The insurance companies will all run to Wyoming to issue policies, and Wyoming laws would rule in California.”

Whereas some insurers want to be able to sell policies across state lines, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn. opposes the idea. It argues that such permission would result in inexpensive, watered-down policies.

One man’s “watered-down” is another man’s perfect fit.

Rather than letting the market create policies that fit the needs of all consumers, especially young adults, that would lead them to buy insurance, the Democrats want to compel them, under threat of fines or jail, to buy what they do not need.

So Democrats betray their own claims: forcing someone to buy what they do not need and do not want, will not save them money, but will cost them money.

Establishing a minimum level of benefits at the federal level could mitigate that somewhat, said Kris Haltmeyer, Blue Cross Blue Shield policy director.

Still, he said, “I do worry that there will be a race to the bottom, but the bottom won’t be as low as it used to be.”