The Trials and Tribulations of Health Care Reform
Welcome to this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. Today we're going to look at several articles discussing the hot-button topic of health care reform. The first article comes to us from Reuters and is entitled, "WellPoint urges action on health-care reform." In this article, they discuss how Wellpoint CEO Angela Braly has some ideas on health care and health insurance reform. She first expresses concerns over trying to pass a comprehensive package, and that it will slow things down in the long run.
According to Braly, the new administration's first act should tackle legislation taking care of SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program), which is supposed to expire soon. She then thinks, as do others, that the next step is mandatory health insurance for everyone in the country, similar to laws in effect in Massachusetts. Braly supports a plan put forward by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus which supports universal coverage, as well as supporting tax cuts to help make coverage more affordable. She also feels that if government does have mandatory insurance, it needs the "teeth" to enforce it, or people will procrastinate and not get insurance when they should. Overall, it was refreshing to read such an opinion from the head of one of the country's largest health insurance agencies.
This segues into our next article, entitled, "Health Insurers Offer to Accept All Applicants, on Condition," from The New York Times. In this article, they discuss how two large health insurance trade associations -- America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association -- announced that they would support a health care and health insurance overhaul on the condition that all Americans are required to have coverage.
The thinking of this stance is that with everyone paying for health care, those customers who are well and don't need constant medical attention and services would offset the costs of those who do, lowering costs for everyone and thereby making insurance more affordable. These companies also insist that if insurance isn't mandated, customers will buy it only when they need it when they get sick, which doesn't help anyone. This increases insurance prices for everyone, not just those involved. It'll be interesting to see if President-elect Obama adopts this stance as well, as previously he's stated he only wants to begin mandating coverage for children, rather than everyone.
Our final article, entitled, "This Time Around, Health-Care Revamp Has Wings," comes to us from The Wall Street Journal. In this article, they discuss the differences between the climate of health insurance reform versus the much different climate in the early 90's, when universal health care was proposed by the Clinton administration only to be shot down.
These days, however, many of the same groups that opposed universal coverage earlier are now supporting it, making for a much less hostile environment for health care reform. They mention similar trade groups as the previous article, along with support from legislative heavyweights such as Tom Daschle and Edward Kennedy. It's thought that with more support this time, universal health coverage actually has a chance of succeeding this time around.
This concludes this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. I hope you've enjoyed it, and I hope you have a happy and healthy day.
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