Hope For Health Reform Compromise

Even though people on all sides of the political spectrum admit that the US health care system cannot serve the needs of many citizens, reform keeps getting stalled. One of the big problems has been getting all of the different players to compromise. Health insurance companies, business management, medical providers, legislators, and of course, consumers, all had their own interests, and nobody could get them to put those interests aside in order to achieve positive change.

Many US Workers Do Not Have Health Insurance Now

We have made some progress. Right now almost all US retirees and 90% of children have coverage. But amazingly, 1 in 5 US workers, the people who pay taxes to support health programs, do not have a health insurance policy. These uncovered people do not have a group medical plan at work, and they cannot afford individual major medical insurance. And this number has grown from about 1 in 7 workers who did not have health insurance in the 1990s.

Will Health Insurance Companies Help?

But private health insurers, that group that was one of the opponents to changes in the health care system, may be showing signs of compromise! Again, their recent flexibility may be a desperate move to keep the government from creating their own public health care system that would compete with private companies.

However, in a startling move, two large insurance groups have recently said that they may be willing to give up the practice of rating applicants by risk. Right now, people with preexisting health conditions must pay a lot more for individual health insurance than very healthy people. In the industry, this is called a “rate up”. Many uninsured Americans have health conditions, so they either cannot afford health insurance, or are simply declined by individual insurers. We assume that any planned government health program would be open to everybody without any risk rating.

Is This Compromise Enough?

This does not help everybody. I do believe that making health insurance more affordable for people with certain health conditions will reduce the problem, but it will not eliminate it. I still have some questions for the insurers and legislators.

Hope For Health Reform Compromise

• Premium Rate-ups apply to people with minor and controllable health conditions. But what about the millions of people who would be declined for health insurance because of more serious health issues?
• Does this lack of risk rating mean that everybody’s premiums will go up even more?
• Will there be government subsidies for people who still cannot afford the premium?
• What about small business owners who often suffer from risk rating of their small health plan groups? Will this practice also be offered to them so more small companies can offer a group health plan?

I am a little more optimistic because the insurers addressed the issue, which means they are thinking and talking about it. But I still do not think that this solves the problem. So the answer leaves me unsatisfied, and I hope next time they are willing to move a little further.

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