What States are doing about Affordable Health Insurance
Welcome to this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. This week we will look at three articles looking at various steps and ideas to make health insurance more affordable for individuals and small businesses, whether through concessions or the idea of reform. Our first article, entitled, "Health insurers, NFIB now friends, not foes, on reforms" comes to us from the Washington Business Journal. This article looks at how the National Federation of Independent Business and the health insurance industry -- longtime foes over health insurance reform -- are now making strides toward agreeing on various reforms in order to reduce the cost of health insurance for small businesses.
America's Health Insurance Plans, a major group representing the interests of health insurance companies, recently released a statement that addresses the needs of small businesses. This includes tax breaks, state-regulated health care plans and so on. While both groups agree that small businesses are a key sector that requires assistance in order to keep health insurance affordable, many are still dubious due to both groups' stance of opposition over government-run health insurance. It will be interesting to see where things go from here, but we'll keep an eye on stories like this to monitor any progress towards reform.
Our second article is entitled, "Insurers Offer to End Prices Tied to Illness" and comes to us from The Wall Street Journal. In this article, two of the industry's main trade groups recently sent a letter to Senate leaders saying they would be willing to stop charging sick people higher prices on health insurance if everyone in the country were mandated to have health insurance. This is seen as a maneuver on the part of the health insurance industry to maintain a seat at the table in upcoming legislative work regarding health care and health insurance reform.
However, the letter left out many key pieces necessary for reform. For example, it didn't rule out rate variation entirely, as insurers would still be set rates based on age, geography, family size and more in order to "maintain affordability." The letter also only looked at the individual health insurance market, and didn't touch upon small businesses. All of these important factors will be key in health insurance reform, so while the letter is seen as an important concession, more can easily be done. Insurance companies are against any kind of government-run insurance plan, so it will be interesting to see what happens here, as both political parties and groups on both sides of the issue will further debate reform in the future.
Our final article is entitled, "A Health Plan for All and the Concerns It Raises," comes to us from The New York Times. This article looks at the growing notion of a "Medicare-for-all" type of health insurance system, as we have looked at earlier in this column. While more pundits are touting the idea of such a system providing more choice for consumers, individual health insurance companies are decidedly against such health insurance companies who feel they couldn't compete with the lower costs offered by a government-run program.
There are some who say that offering a public plan would force private insurers to be more cost-effective and impose greater discipline upon themselves in order to make their prices more affordable and competitive. While many see Medicare as a success for consumers -- since it keeps spending much lower than private plans -- will private companies be able to compete? Some say yes, by trimming costs and offering a wider range of benefits that a government-run plan. However, since some accuse Medicare of underpaying, some question having a Medicare-based system since doctors and hospitals might not get as much in reimbursements.
This concludes this issue of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. I hope you have found it informative and enjoyable, and until next time, have a happy and healthy day.
