Welcome to this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. This week we will look at three articles that deal with health care reform and employer-based health insurance, and how opinions on them vary. Our first article comes from the New Hampshire Business Review and is entitled, “Is the employer-based insurance system unsustainable?” The title caught my eye because this is a very important and valid question that I’d honestly not seen posed before in my research.
This article cites the examples of two small business owners in New Hampshire, and how the rising costs of health insurance premiums for their companies is making actually having health insurance or doing business hard to sustain. Apparently premium increases have been in the double-digits, percentage wise, and small businesses are struggling to keep up. Whether companies are dropping health insurance, or not hiring new people or buying new equipment, the high cost of health insurance health care are hurting small businesses, which many politicians love to call the “backbone of America.”
The small business owners here, however, are skeptical of reform, but mustn’t something be done to help ease the cost of health care for both individuals and businesses? Moving onto this topic in particular, our next article is entitled, “Competing demands on health overhaul from groups,” and comes to us from the Associated Press. This article looks at how different groups look at health care reform, and whether they’re for it or against it in a very clear manner.
For example, workers and people with conditions are for health care for lower costs, while hospitals and businesses are against health care reform for various reasons. Businesses are against health care reform because they don’t like the idea of being mandated in providing it at all, while hospitals don’t want to see a reduction in the fees they collect. These divisions of viewpoints, both for and against, will most likely make the battle for health care reform a hard-fought one, and it’s still unclear which side will win in the end at this point.
Our final article comes to us from the LA Times and is entitled, “Public debate over ‘public option’ for healthcare.” This article looks at the huge debate over public health insurance, and how, even though politicians are asking to “keep the powder dry” so sparks aren’t being flung between both side,s this article cites that the sparks are already flying.
One politician said, “This has become a lightning rod,” going onto say that “There is a lot of suspicion. . . . I’m afraid this could easily be used as an excuse for not moving any further.” Groups on both sides of the issue are mobilizing campaigns against each other for both public opinion as well as pull in Washington. Groups like MoveOn.org are mobilizing advertising campaigns, and other groups are taking similar measures. On the matter of health insurance and health care reform, Nita Chaudhary, MoveOn’s national campaigns director said “This is likely to be our biggest fight for the year.” I have a feeling it’ll be more than just this particular year.
This concludes this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. As always, I hope you have found it informative and interesting, and until next time, have a happy and healthy day.
The Sustainability of Employer-Based Health Insurance, and Public Opinion and Differences over Health Care Reform
Welcome to this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. This week we will look at three articles that deal with health care reform and employer-based health insurance, and how opinions on them vary. Our first article comes from the New Hampshire Business Review and is entitled, “Is the employer-based insurance system unsustainable?” The title caught my eye because this is a very important and valid question that I’d honestly not seen posed before in my research.
This article cites the examples of two small business owners in New Hampshire, and how the rising costs of health insurance premiums for their companies is making actually having health insurance or doing business hard to sustain. Apparently premium increases have been in the double-digits, percentage wise, and small businesses are struggling to keep up. Whether companies are dropping health insurance, or not hiring new people or buying new equipment, the high cost of health insurance health care are hurting small businesses, which many politicians love to call the “backbone of America.”
The small business owners here, however, are skeptical of reform, but mustn’t something be done to help ease the cost of health care for both individuals and businesses? Moving onto this topic in particular, our next article is entitled, “Competing demands on health overhaul from groups,” and comes to us from the Associated Press. This article looks at how different groups look at health care reform, and whether they’re for it or against it in a very clear manner.
For example, workers and people with conditions are for health care for lower costs, while hospitals and businesses are against health care reform for various reasons. Businesses are against health care reform because they don’t like the idea of being mandated in providing it at all, while hospitals don’t want to see a reduction in the fees they collect. These divisions of viewpoints, both for and against, will most likely make the battle for health care reform a hard-fought one, and it’s still unclear which side will win in the end at this point.
Our final article comes to us from the LA Times and is entitled, “Public debate over ‘public option’ for healthcare.” This article looks at the huge debate over public health insurance, and how, even though politicians are asking to “keep the powder dry” so sparks aren’t being flung between both side,s this article cites that the sparks are already flying.
One politician said, “This has become a lightning rod,” going onto say that “There is a lot of suspicion. . . . I’m afraid this could easily be used as an excuse for not moving any further.” Groups on both sides of the issue are mobilizing campaigns against each other for both public opinion as well as pull in Washington. Groups like MoveOn.org are mobilizing advertising campaigns, and other groups are taking similar measures. On the matter of health insurance and health care reform, Nita Chaudhary, MoveOn’s national campaigns director said “This is likely to be our biggest fight for the year.” I have a feeling it’ll be more than just this particular year.
This concludes this installment of the Weekly Health Insurance News Roundup. As always, I hope you have found it informative and interesting, and until next time, have a happy and healthy day.