Democrat plan to stop private health insurance companies from providing benefits ?
After years of complaining about private health insurers denying care, the democrat plan
is now to penalize insurers who do provide full coverage.
Mr. Baucus's plan, expected to cost $850 billion to $900 billion over 10 years, would tax insurance companies on their most expensive health care policies. The hope is that employers would buy cheaper, less generous coverage for employees, thereby reducing the overuse of medical services.
The separate new fee on insurance companies would help raise money to pay for the plan. The fee would raise $6 billion a year starting in 2010, and it would be allocated among insurance companies according to their market shares.
The fees were first proposed by Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York, John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Until now, Mr. Baucus had not shown interest in the idea.
Mr. Schumer said, "The health insurance industry should pay its fair share of the cost because it stands to gain over 40 million new consumers under health care reform legislation."
Mr. Rockefeller said the fees were justified because insurance companies were "rapaciously, greedily and unstoppably making money by underpaying the patient, by underpaying the provider and by overpaying themselves."
Insurers and many Republicans in Congress oppose the fees, saying they would be passed on to families and employers who buy insurance. Robert E. Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, said the fees would "make coverage less affordable."
A recent report by Oppenheimer & Company, the investment bank, said, "It will be very difficult for the Senate Finance Committee to structure the fees in a way that they won't be immediately passed on to customers in the form of higher premiums."
Another section of Mr. Baucus's proposal would help pay insurance premiums, co-payments and deductibles for people with incomes less than 300 percent of the poverty level ($66,150 for a family of four). It would also provide some protection for people with incomes from 300 percent to 400 percent of the poverty level (up to $88,200 for a family of four), so they would generally not have to pay more than 13 percent of their income in premiums.
Health / Health Care Policy
New Fee on Health Insurance Companies Is Proposed to Help Expand Coverage
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: September 7, 2009
The proposal, circulated by Senator Max Baucus, does not include a government-run health care plan, which many Democrats want.
You 'solve' the problem of the uninsured by passing a law forcing them to buy health insurance which, by definition, most a) cannot afford or b) are gambling they won't need because they're young and healthy. Either you end up with low subsidies which still leave it onerous to buy, thus creating a lot of disgruntled people, or you get generous subsidies, which cost a lot of money.
-- JMM / TPM