High health costs are very much on the minds of state legislators as they prepare for next year's sessions. I traveled to Oklahoma a few days ago for a speech before the House of Representatives' Health Care Reform Task Force in the beautiful and ornate House chambers.

State Reps. Doug Cox and Kris Steele co-chair the task force, set up by House Speaker Chris Benge to investigate ways to expand access to health insurance for Oklahomans. In my presentation, I warned against adding more mandates and regulations or following the highly-regulatory lead of Massachusetts.

Legislators often believe they are doing the right thing for their constituents by forcing insurers to charge level premiums to all policy holders, mandating comprehensive coverage of dozens of health care services and providers, and requiring companies to sell insurance to all comers.

But these policies backfire and distort the market, discouraging young and healthy people from buying insurance, telling people they can wait until they are sick to buy coverage. For example, New York has both guaranteed issue and community rating laws, and it has health insurance costs that are 3.5 times higher than less-regulated Iowa, according to a Forrester Research study for eHealthInsurance.