The NYT is a left leaning newspaper. In the year leading up to the passage of the national health insurance plan they failed to mention the many problems of the individual and small group health insurance markets in New York. One month after passage they ran an article about the incredibly high premiums involved in these markets and what caused such large increases. It really is shameful that they knew of these major problems at least a year before passage of the medical insurance bill, yet held onto the information until they got what they wanted, passage of the law. Even more shameful is the fact that the story was buried deep within the pages of the publication. https://higginscompanies.com/health-insurance/health-savings-plan/
In 1993 NY passed a law forcing health insurance carriers to insure all those with pre-existing conditions. This was at the height of the AIDS dilemma. Adding to the health insurance companies problems was the fact that they had to charge the same premium rate in each region. It didn’t matter if a person was old or young, male or female, sick or not, everyone received the same price. The young were subsidizing the old in effect, the healthy paying for the sickly. https://higginscompanies.com/health-insurance/individual-health-insurance/
It didn’t take long for the healthy people to figure out that it wasn’t worth paying the high premiums when they were guaranteed acceptance if and when they became sick. What was left in the risk pools were those with a lot of medical claims and premiums shot through the roof. This is known as the adverse selection death spiral.
The new Obamacare plan has penalties in place for those that refuse to buy health insurance, and monies to help those that can’t afford the premiums. As mentioned in other blog entries, the new insurance law has no teeth, no real penalty for not buying insurance. Furthermore, the penalty is so low that it will be much cheaper to pay the fine than pay the premium. The monies to help the young that can’t afford the higher premiums for insurance will come from the older taxpayer, and those tax dollars will be paid back to the old in lower premiums. There is a term for this as well, it’s call, “insane.” Instead of basing premiums on actual risk we will now create a welfare state for the young, the whole point of Obamacare to begin with. Premiums are still going to rise dramatically because there is nothing in the law to address this, giving younger, healthy people more reason to drop out and possibly pay the low fine instead.
The end result of the 93′ New York law is that the individual market in NY has been decimated and is nearly wiped out. Look at Massachusetts, KY., TN., and HI. How many more examples do we need to realize that this new law will cost us trillions of dollars and will be a complete failure. And for what? A few votes locked in for Democrats.
Michael Higgins
602.405.8769
An Arizona health insurance broker.