The cost of inaction

[county worker]

THE COST OF INACTION

“So how much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it? How
many more Americans have to lose their health insurance? How many more businesses
have to drop coverage? How many more years can the federal budget handle the crushing
costs of Medicare and Medicaid? When is the right time for health insurance reform?”

– PRESIDENT OBAMA
IF WE DO NOT PASS HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM:

Up to 17 million more people will be uninsured by 2019 than today. 1

The average family's health care costs will nearly double by 2020, from $13,000 to $24,000

— meaning they'll be paying a quarter of their income toward health care costs. 2
Insurers can continue the massive and arbitrary premium rate increases we've heard about
recently — such as Anthem Blue Cross raising rates for customers in California by nearly
40%, and rates in Illinois going up by as much as 60%.

As many as 275,000 people could die prematurely over the next 10 years because they
don't have health insurance. 3

Health care costs will take up a staggering amount of our national budget. In 1960, it was 5
percent of gross domestic product (GDP), last year it was 17 percent. Costs will reach 21
percent of our economy by 2020 if we fail to act. 4

Rapidly rising costs will make it harder for employers — particularly small businesses — to
provide quality health insurance to employees, leading many to drop coverage or shift to
plans that cover less. 5

Even those who have insurance today will be less secure, and more likely to lose coverage if
they switch jobs or lose their job due to rising costs on the individual market or being
denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition. 6

1. http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411965_failure_to_enact.pdf
2. Commonwealth Fund, via NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/weekinreview/28abelson.html
3. Families USA, via NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/weekinreview/28abelson.html
4. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Blog/The-Costs-of-Failure.aspx
5. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Blog/The-Costs-of-Failure.aspx
6. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/opinion/07sun1.html?pagewanted=all

[Ozymanithrax]

1. So what do you suggest?

[county worker]

2. I suggest you call your representative and tell them to vote for the Senate plan and then

fix it through reconciliation.

[CountAllVotes]

3. agree

we need to get this through. It can and will be tweaked again and again down the road.

It is a start. Period.

:kick:

[midnight]

4. When the insurance co. are not competing with anyone, they

can pretty much do whatever they want to do. I'm not sure if I will be using this term correctly when it comes to discussing this mechanism, but a couple of times in the past, it had been discussed that insurance co. should lose anti trust exemption? Have they or will they? And if I understand this correctly will this create other opportunities for competition.

[county worker]

5. House votes to strip health insurance companies of antitrust exemption

By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post staff writer
Wednesday, February 24, 2010; 6:10 PM

The House voted Wednesday to strip health insurance companies of their exemption from federal antitrust laws, a Democratic measure that could resonate with public concerns about insurers but that has an uncertain future in the Senate.

The provision passed on a 406 to 19 vote, with most Republicans joining all the House Democrats in voting for the measure.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404324.html

[midnight]

6. Thank you for this clarification, and link.

"The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, however, said last year that because states already investigate health insurance companies, repealing the exemption would not significantly reduce premiums. Under a 1945 law, health insurance companies are regulated by state governments to prevent collusion, price-fixing and other anti-competitive behavior." However, I can't believe this information is accurate by todays interpretation of the anti trust laws after 1981. Some twist on the laws to allow for consumer pricing to save money via low balling product and services, and then cornering the market and closing it providing no competition, and then price gauging.

[AlinPA]

7. I'm starting to believe that HCR will not pass the house. Reconciliation will never happen.

Democrats are so afraid of republicans that they will back down. Pelosi will continue to sing "we have the votes", "we are close", "in a few weeks", ... until November. The election will eliminate a lot of the votes that she thinks she has. Don't even think about the senate having any guts to move HCR. What a hell of mess.