FIXING THE GAME
Ideas from the insurance industry and its supporters
Fixed Rule:
AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans), the trade association of the insurance industry, claims it wants to help small businesses afford coverage. Karen Ignagni, AHIP president, testified before Congress on that very subject, emphasizing that “health insurers are committed to improving health care choices for small businesses and bringing costs under control for all Americans.”
So how are they planning to do that? Nor surprisingly, one of their main proposals is federal funding for state high-risk pools:
“AHIP strongly supports federal funding for state high-risk pools to cover individuals who do not have employer-sponsored coverage and suffer from grave or chronic health conditions. These pools have proven to be highly successful in ensuring that individuals who have unusually high health care costs can obtain the coverage they need at more affordable rates.”
Where do you think that funding would come from? That’s right, taxpayers—YOU and ME! The insurance industry’s proposal for helping small businesses get affordable health insurance coverage is for taxpayers to pay part of their skyrocketing private insurance company premiums!
They also propose more transparency. How refreshing! But wait, who do they expect to be more transparent? Insurance companies? NO! Doctors, hospitals and other health care providers:
“Health insurance plans are working with other public and private stakeholders to promote greater transparency and value-based competition throughout the U.S. health care system. This effort is focused on empowering small business employees and other consumers to be more actively engaged in making decisions—based on reliable, user-friendly data—about their medical treatments and how their health care dollars are spent.
To meet this challenge, AHIP and its members are working through a broad-based coalition—known as the AQA—to develop uniform processes for performance measurement and reporting. Those processes are ongoing, and would first, allow patients and purchasers to evaluate the cost, quality and efficiency of care delivered, and second, enable practitioners to determine how their performance compares with their peers in similar specialties. This effort now involves more than 125 organizations, including physician groups, hospitals, accrediting organizations, private sector employers and business coalitions, and government representatives.” [Emphasis added]
No mention of more transparency in how health insurance companies set their premiums. Learn more about just how secretive that process is in this weeks’ Foul Play.
Learn More about how businesses are getting trampled by the health insurance industry.
It’s time we looked in a new direction for the solution to these problems!
Fair Rule:
- A public alternative to insurance company coverage that is accountable to us.
- Fair regulation and oversight of insurance companies, with government as a watchdog.
Read more in the "Fixing the Game" Archive.
LATEST SCORECARD
Fifty-eight percent of primary care doctors in the U.S. report their patients often have difficulty paying for medications and care, and half of U.S. doctors spend substantial time dealing with restrictions insurance companies place on their patients’ care, according to the 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey.
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Families saw their premiums for job-based health insurance rise to an average of $13,375 annually in 2009, with workers paying an average share of $3,515 and employers paying $9,860.
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