In The News: Inaction Isn't An Option
It feels so right to be angry at health insurance companies. Insurers deny coverage to people who need it, cancel policies for flimsy reasons when people get sick, and now they've enraged customers in California and other states by proposing to jack up some premiums by almost 40%. Are they kidding?That righteous anger feels good, but it misses the point, which is that this is how today's unreformed health care system is supposed to work. For-profit insurance companies are mostly behaving like, well, companies that want to make a profit. The public's ire is better directed at elected officials who perpetuate the unsustainable status quo. More specifically, at Congress, or the part of it blocking a reform plan that would provide relief to anyone who's self-employed, whose company doesn't offer insurance or who suddenly loses a job.
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Hard-pressed insurance customers in California and everywhere would be helped if next week's bipartisan health summit in Washington got reform unstuck. Opponents are angry that Congress and President Obama tried to do too much. Californians' woes are proof lawmakers haven't done enough.
The case in California is only the tip of the iceberg. Until health insurance reform is passed, insurance companies will continue to drive up the costs of medical care for all Americans. An editorial in today's New York Times illustrates why our nation needs reform now:
Clients were understandably furious when Anthem Blue Cross, the largest for-profit health insurer in California, announced huge rate increases for people who buy their own insurance: an average increase of 25 percent, and a 35 percent to 39 percent rise for a quarter of the purchasers. The move also provided a textbook example of why the nation badly needs comprehensive health care reforms.The reform bills stalled in Congress would put a brake on such out-of-scale premium increases by broadening the pools of insured people to keep average premiums low by setting up competitive insurance exchanges and by starting to rein in the cost of medical care that is driving up premiums everywhere.
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Unless Congress passes comprehensive reform, we should expect many more Anthems in our future.
Health insurance reform would help rein in unconscionable premium increases that insurance companies have recently proposed, drive down health care costs, and curb out-of-pocket expenses. As Paul Krugman wrote today, "California's death spiral is a reminder that our health care system is unraveling...inaction isn't an option":
Health insurance premiums are surging -- and conservatives fear that the spectacle will reinvigorate the push for reform. On the Fox Business Network, a host chided a vice president of WellPoint, which has told California customers to expect huge rate increases: 'You handed the politicians red meat at a time when health care is being discussed. You gave it to them!'Indeed. Sky-high rate increases make a powerful case for action. And they show, in particular, that we need comprehensive, guaranteed coverage -- which is exactly what Democrats are trying to accomplish.