Posted on 03/24/2010 6:30:29 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Massachusetts may have a universal health insurance mandate, but it is New York state that has experimented for the longest time with key components of the new federal health care package, most especially with mandate that insurers must offer coverage to all comers, and also that insurers have limits on how much they can vary the price of a policy for different demographic groups. Whether the feds can figure out how to avoid all of the pitfalls that have plagued this system in New York remains to be seen.
New York enacted a health reform package with these two mandates - known as guaranteed issue and community rating - in 1993, making it unique among the states (only five others have both mandates but none has requirements as strict as New York's). Back when the state instituted the reforms about 752,000 residents were buying health insurance directly from insurance companies in the individual market. But premiums immediately started to soar, and as residents realized they could purchase insurance at any time, even after they got sick, New York's individual health insurance market disappeared, shrinking by 95 percent all the way down to a mere 34,000 individuals. Meanwhile, the ranks of the uninsured spiked to 20 percent by 1997.
New York's response to its vast increase in uninsured residents was to offer more state-subsidized insurance. When the price tag on these plans began to weigh down the state budget, New York slapped new taxes on residents and businesses to pay for them, including a new $275 million assessment against insurance companies on top of some $3 billion in assessments they already pay in the state. All of this so that the state's uninsured rolls would soar as costs spiraled upward and then declined again as government stepped in with subsidized coverage.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
* In a study of New York, the Manhattan Institute estimated that the Empire State's mandates increased the cost of health premiums by a whopping 42 percent to the highest in the nation (this was before RomneyCare spiked Massachusetts' premiums even higher).
* The study estimated that up to 37 percent of those who were uninsured in the state could afford coverage if the state junked its expensive mandates, especially the guaranteed issue and community rating mandates.
* Many of the rest of the uninsured were low-income residents already eligible for Medicaid who never signed up for it.
* The remaining small group of uninsured were largely those with pre-existing conditions who would have to be covered by a risk pool.
* New York slapped new taxes on residents and businesses to pay for them, including a new $275 million assessment against insurance companies on top of some $3 billion in assessments they already pay in the state. All of this so that the state's uninsured rolls would soar as costs spiraled upward and then declined again as government stepped in with subsidized coverage.
This is like trying to wrap jello with rubber bands.
I guess the next step is to allow you to buy car insurance to cover an accident after it's already happened, or life insurance for your spouse after he's already croaked.
New York State is flirting towards bankrupcy with a huge budget deficit of close to $10 Billion even as their politicians ( both Governor and Lt. Governor UNELECTED BY THE WAY ) all have their own personal problems — from using government resources for private use, to granting contract favors to friends and relatives, to cheating on their wives to beating up their girlfriends.
In the meantime, we’re still waiting for the state budget to pass.
Nice imagery there.
It’s what the central planners, socialists, and nanny-staters never seem to get. As a whole, we are much better off setting up a framework of minimalist and rational rules, and letting people figure out what’s best for themselves.
But people don’t know what is best for them - the government has to tell them. America is so screwed.
BTTT!
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