And speaking of the health-overhaul proposals (see previous post), we note an armful of stories today dealing with what has become a third-rail issue — the rates at which premiums are going up for individual health plans.
The cost of health policies has been an eye-of-the-beholder issue for a long time in the overhaul debate. There’s been broad agreement that individual rates are headed up, but overhaul opponents have contended they would rise even more under Democratic-backed health-system changes, while the Dems argued that rising rates are evidence of why overhaul measures are needed.
There matters stood pretty much unresolved until complaints surfaced this month about WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross of California unit moving to boost policy premiums by as much as 39%. Democrats saw an opening and a chance to build momentum on the cost issue leading up to the Feb. 25 bipartisan health summit.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius demanded a “detailed justification” for the increases and followed up yesterday with a report that cited other “extreme premium increases,” including requests to raise rates by 56% in Michigan, 24% in Connecticut, 23% in Maine and 20% in Oregon. The Washington Post says this morning that Washington area residents also are being notified of premium hikes of as much as 40%.
Insurers say they are raising prices to keep up with rising medical costs and sicker customers. The customer pool is sicker because as people lose their jobs, younger, healthier individuals are more likely to go without insurance in a difficult economy, skewing the mix of policy holders toward the elderly, a WellPoint executive told the WSJ this morning.
Hope lives on that there might be a chance to cool down this hot-button issue. Karen Ignagni, head of insurers’ lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans, told the WaPo: “It’s time to stop the politics of vilification.”
Read more in today’s Los Angeles Times and New York Times.
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