In a new internal study, New Hampshire's largest health insurer says that reform proposals under consideration in Congress will lead to premium increases for a majority of its individual and small business customers in the state.
"We support reform because the current (health-care spending) trajectory as a nation and state is unsustainable," said Douglas Wenners, the president and general manager of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. "But we believe you have to get to the root causes of medical cost increases and this (reform legislation) does that." ...
Anthem NH is the for-profit subsidiary of Well Point, the nation's largest private health insurer. According to 2008 state figures, Anthem has almost 55 percent of the health insurance market with more than 320,000 members. Anthem officials said the report was prepared in response to inquiries about how reform might impact premiums in the state.
The impact of reform, Wenners explained in an interview with the Herald, depends partly on demographics, premium group size, and health status of premium payers. Some young and healthy individual market members will see major premium increases of up to 93 percent — while other members who belong in a group plan and have average health could, with government subsidies, see a decrease in premiums as much as 9 percent.
The report says "purchasers of average age and average health are expected to face higher premiums post-reform, and we specifically expect a majority of small employer purchasers to face higher premiums post-reform."
Anthem, which insures 5,000 groups with fewer than 10 employees, said that more than 50 percent of New Hampshire small businesses would see significant premium increases under reform.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Health Care Overhall Will Cause Rate Hikes in NH
Anyone who follows this blog, or with a modicum of common sense, probably already knew what today's Portsmouth Herald is reporting but here it is anyways (emphasis ours):
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Let's get rid of Medicare! This is government run health care that already exists and it is wasting tax payer money. It's not fair that I have to pay for insurance for seniors who are at high risk because of their age. Also, I think people who have existing conditions should never be insured. It's not capitalism if you are forced to pay out more money than you gets paid in by individuals who have bad health. That's ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteBlue Cross is full of hooey. The rate hikes in California are unprecedented - almost 100% in less than two years...across the board for all age PPO individual plan members on the same day they reported an EIGHT fold increase in profit...our PPO plan is now $1700/month with a high deductible and 5k out of pocket...
ReplyDeletegood luck if you have even a MINOR pre-existing condition - you will be denied the opportunity to switch insurers and then be at the mercy of unregulated rate hikes.