Uninsured Slow To Enroll In New High-Risk Pools Don’t tell me they couldn’t have predicted this. Particularly since it cost more than some of these people take home in a week. Looking forward, with no significant regulation of the cost of the plans, or the cost of the care, it isn’t likely to change. The price is not right for most.
It’s not only high risk pools. The increase in rates ( example Maryland where the rates increased 40 percent last year for many plans, after having increased almost twenty percent the year before), has caused employers who have plans to go to a high deductible plan ( In some cases well over 4 grand a year for a family), or drop their plans altogether. That 4 grand comes easier for some than for others. It often prevents those who can’t afford the deductibles from seeing a doctor for things that maybe they should be seeing a doctor for. So, here we are right back where we started, with those at the middle part of the spectrum getting stuck. They have insurance that cost what is to them a fortune, but it is worthless except in the case of a hospitalization or other catastrophic illness.
Then there are silly political moves. In my state a business gets a tax break or credit of 7 or 8 grand for businesses who offer insurance for the first time, but no break for business who have consistently offered it, despite the fact the astronomical increase in their rates over the last two years. As a result there are as many businesses dropping their group plans as there are initiating a plan. Talk about getting getting nowhere fast.
The market based regulatory model doesn’t work for health insurance, at least not to the benefit of those purchasing it. In a free market there is supposed to be satisfaction on both sides. Tit for tat. You pay “this” and get “that”. What you get should be worth what you pay for, or at least make you happy. Both sides are supposed to be content here. With health insurance — especially with these high deductible plans that are currently the insurance companies profit nirvana — you pay “this”, but don’t get anything until you’ve paid another (huge deductible), “that”. “That” being the bit you can’t afford. Consequently, you don’t use the insurance you pay for. You skip going to the doctor for that recurring sore throat that could be cancer, or that strange rash — a symptom of leukemia. You wait too long because you just can’t afford the deductible this week, this month, this year. The insurance companies smile.
Progress
A comments off I shouldn’t read NPR during lunch presentation.
