As a follow-up to earlier posts on the so-called consumer protections included in the bills backed by Congressional leadership, a state level survey by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) offers additional analysis of the effects of regulation on health insurance premiums. The AHIP report shows that the states with the three highest premium averages all require community rating and guaranteed issue. Of course, a range of other factors (such as demographics) affect the price of insurance, but these regulations do play a significant role in driving up costs. As the …
President Obama and Democrats in Congress want to impose two costly health insurance regulations nationwide. The first is community rating, which prohibits insurers from varying premiums based on an individual’s health status. The second is guaranteed issue, which forces insurers to sell policies to everyone at anytime, even individuals who wait until after they are sick to obtain insurance. Community rating and guaranteed issue are designed to raise healthy people’s premiums in order to subsidize the premiums of high-risk individuals. It is important to work to ensure that high-risk individuals …
This morning, The Lewin Group, a non-partisan health care econometrics firm, released its long-awaited report on the presidential candidates’ health plans. Lewin is “the gold standard of independent health-care analysis.” Its report revealed profound differences in the candidates’ directions for health reform. Barack Obama clearly favors an expansion of government programs (and the creation of new ones); more regulation handed down from Washington; new mandates, rules, and penalties; and restrictions on individual choice. John McCain advocates empowering consumers; reigning in government programs; freeing up insurance markets; and enabling individuals and …
