Bust the Health Care Trusts
By ROBERT B. REICH
NYT
Berkeley, Calif.
MY health insurer here in California is Anthem Blue Cross. So far, my group policy hasn’t been affected by Anthem’s planned rate increase of as much as 39 percent for its customers with individual policies — but the trend worries me, as it should everyone. Rates are soaring all over the country. Insurers have been seeking to raise premiums 24 percent in Connecticut, 23 percent in Maine, 20 percent in Oregon and a wallet-popping 56 percent in Michigan. How can insurers raise prices as much as they want without fear of losing customers?
Astonishingly, the health insurance industry is exempt from federal antitrust laws, which is why a handful of insurers have become so dominant in their markets that their customers simply have nowhere else to go. But that protection could soon end: President Obama on Tuesday announced his support of a House bill that would repeal health insurers’ antitrust exemption, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled that she would put it toward an immediate vote.
This is promising news. Forcing insurers to compete for our business would do at least as much good as the president’s proposal to give the federal government, working with the states, the power to deny or roll back excessive premiums. The fact is that half of the states already have the power to approve rates and they don’t seem to be holding insurers back much.
Health insurers like Anthem claim they have to raise rates (as well as co-payments and deductibles) because of the economic downturn. Employers are reducing coverage and cutting payrolls. As a result, more people are buying individual policies, but they tend to be older and sicker. Younger and healthier Americans are simply going without insurance, and thus not subsidizing their costlier fellow policy-holders.
(Continued here.)
NYT
Berkeley, Calif.
MY health insurer here in California is Anthem Blue Cross. So far, my group policy hasn’t been affected by Anthem’s planned rate increase of as much as 39 percent for its customers with individual policies — but the trend worries me, as it should everyone. Rates are soaring all over the country. Insurers have been seeking to raise premiums 24 percent in Connecticut, 23 percent in Maine, 20 percent in Oregon and a wallet-popping 56 percent in Michigan. How can insurers raise prices as much as they want without fear of losing customers?
Astonishingly, the health insurance industry is exempt from federal antitrust laws, which is why a handful of insurers have become so dominant in their markets that their customers simply have nowhere else to go. But that protection could soon end: President Obama on Tuesday announced his support of a House bill that would repeal health insurers’ antitrust exemption, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled that she would put it toward an immediate vote.
This is promising news. Forcing insurers to compete for our business would do at least as much good as the president’s proposal to give the federal government, working with the states, the power to deny or roll back excessive premiums. The fact is that half of the states already have the power to approve rates and they don’t seem to be holding insurers back much.
Health insurers like Anthem claim they have to raise rates (as well as co-payments and deductibles) because of the economic downturn. Employers are reducing coverage and cutting payrolls. As a result, more people are buying individual policies, but they tend to be older and sicker. Younger and healthier Americans are simply going without insurance, and thus not subsidizing their costlier fellow policy-holders.
(Continued here.)
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UPDATE : HR 4626 - Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act - Passes
The floor debate was entertaining whic was not reflective in the final vote tally.
The vote was 406 to 19 (all dissenters were Republicans {of note : John Boehner, Steve King, Ron Paul, Tom Price, and Paul Ryan}).
For people like John Kline who has clamored for a ReStart this would have been hard to vote against. It was less then two pages and covered one subject … eliminating the anti-trust exemption for companies that sell health insurance (based on this legislation they would still have an exemption on other forms of insurance … i.e. life). It was supported by Attorney Generals of all states.
So, what argument would the Republicans offer ? It was the wrong bill to ReStart the discussion. Repeatedly they sought for Tort Reform … citing that the savings would be negligible on changing the anti-trust exemption but in the billions on tort reform. They wanted tort reform first. The Democrats refuted those arguments stating that was great potential saving by changing the anti-trust exemption and that the billions to be saved under Tort Reform were based on other changes that the Republicans wanted. After two hours the debated ended.
Then the game-playing began. The Republicans requested that the bill be sent back to the Judiciary Committee for additional work … a standard delaying tactic.
That’s when things got interesting. Tony Weiner (D-NY) started off attacking the tactic but then called the Republicans in Congress pawns for the insurance industry (not his exact words, but that was his message) … someone protested and demanded that his words be “taken down” (a technical term) that could result in him not being able to speak on the floor for the rest of the day … Weiner eventually asked to withdraw his words and to restart his speech … he then proceed to say to the affect that every Republican that he has met has been a pawn for the insurance industry – BOOM – OK, now we have a ReStart of the “taken down” process … once again, Weiner eventually asks that his words be retracted … at which point he started again, but this time didn’t mention the Republican Party but instead cited that the Democrats were the Party For the People.
The vote now went along pretty much party lines … 249-170 with 5 Democrats joining the Republicans and 3 Republicans joining the Democrats so it went to the final vote which as I stated above overwhelmingly passed ... the Minnesota delegation was united in thier support.
This legislation will probably never go anywhere since there is no companion bill in the Senate … but it sets a tone.
The lesson here is that although Kline has stated that there is broad agreement on 80% of healthcare reform, it will be like pulling teeth to get them to enact any legislation.
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