Unsustainable Health Insurance Plans

American Journalism Center ^ | December 10, 2009 | Sarah Carlsruh

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Unsustainable Health Insurance Plans

Sarah Carlsruh, December 10, 2009

On Sunday, December 6th, President Barack Obama paid a visit to Senators on Capitol Hill to urge them to pass health care reform. Senate leaders are working to rally 60 supporting votes to get this bill passed. This health care bill will purportedly reform the admittedly flawed health insurance market through the innovation of an insurance exchange. Will this exchange be an improvement? Also, will enforcement flaws inherent in the exchange make the health care bill even less economically sustainable? According to the WhiteHouse.gov,

“The health insurance exchange is a marketplace that will offer affordable high-quality health insurance options. It will provide relief to families who have no insurance or do not get adequate insurance at work and cannot afford to buy it in the costly individual or small group market. It is also for small businesses that cannot afford small group health insurance. It is one-stop shopping that will enable you and your family to find a plan that is right for you.”

Ezra Klein, parroting this sentiment, touted the miracle of the exchange in a June Washington Post article, saying that: “Unlike your employer, it will have a wide array of competing providers offering different plans with varying benefit levels, emphases and price tags.” In stark contrast, Robert Moffit of the Center for Health Policy Studies wrote in July that the exchange’s “major function would be to provide a platform for a government-run public health plan that, using Medicare-style administrative pricing, would ‘compete’ against private health insurance.” Of course, the implication is that the private sector cannot possibly fairly compete with a government-subsidy plan....

[Vaduz]

Unsustainable Health Insurance Plans make Obama confused.

[DustyMoment]

Gee, sounds exactly like unsustainable “retirement plans” (like SS).