Insurers Prefer Required Coverage To Maximize Their Sales
WASHINGTON It is being warned by representatives of the health insurance industry that the comprehensive health care bill being put forth in the Senate could increase the cost of a typical policy by hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars a year. This follows an easing up by lawmakers with respect to the requirement that all Americans get coverage.
This attack comes just prior to an important Senate vote and serves as a clear message to President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders who are working at overhauling the nation’s health care system. It is the fear of insurance companies that by reducing the penalties for failing to get insurance Americans will postpone getting coverage until they are sick upping the claims that companies will have to deal with.
For months the insurance industry has been working behind the scenes in an attempt to help shape health care reform. Differing from the last time when President Bill Clinton attempted to put forth his health reform package, this time the insurance industry is attracted to the prospects that millions of more people will be getting coverage. This translates into millions of new consumers buying health care policies.
In fact what the insurance industry really wants is for Congress to expand coverage rather than lessening the penalties that would reduce the number of people with coverage. Although the Senate Finance Committee will be voting on its 10-year, $829 billion bill, what is most important to the industry are the steps to be taken beyond the panel’s decision.
Senator Harry Reid Democrat from Nevada, the Senate Majority Leader, will be combining the bill with a companion measure from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The plan is to produce a sweeping, but affordable bill. Meanwhile, in the House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have been drawing together legislation from three separate committees.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, expressing his anger at the last minute cost estimates introduced by the insurance industry, questioned their reliability.
America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group, sent out new accounting firm projections to its members, saying that the most recent legislation would add $1,700 a year to the average health care cost for a family in 2013, when the majority of the bill’s provisions would take effect.
Their figures show individual coverage going up $600 more than would be the case without the legislation.
According to the study, by the year 2019, family premiums would be up by $4,000 and individual premiums would be $1,500 higher.
A spokesman for the bill’s sponsor described the study as being seriously flawed since it fails to take into account legislative provisions that would act to lower the cost of coverage, examples being tax credits to assist people in purchasing private policies, protections for current policies and what he terms as being administrative savings from a revamped marketplace.
Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for the White House agrees and says that the analysis being used is designed to arrive at a conclusion that will benefit the insurance industry, but not reflect how the bill actually will operate.
