Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
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Tuesday, Karen Ignagni, who heads America's Health Insurance Plans (SourceWatch), said insurers want to help reverse that. "The private sector can rise to the challenge of solving these problems," she said.
Igagni and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association President Scott P. Serota made the offer in a letter to senior senators. But it came with a catch: The insurers said all Americans must first purchase health insurance to boost the size of the risk pool, a concept opposed by many consumer groups.
"By enacting an effective, enforceable requirement that all Americans assume responsibility to obtain and maintain health insurance, we believe we could guarantee issue coverage with no pre-existing condition exclusions and phase out the practice of varying premiums based on health status in the individual market," they wrote.
The two industry leaders said insurers would still need to vary rates based on age, family size and geography.
[Also] unclear is whether the insurers' proposal will head off calls for a government-run insurance program.
After years of horror stories of Americans denied coverage, many congressional Democrats are committed not only to stepping up regulation of the insurance market, but also to creating a so-called "public plan" to bring down the number of uninsured.
Such a plan, which liberals and interest groups say is necessary, would compete directly with private insurers.
Industry representatives vehemently oppose it, saying it would drive insurers out of business and lead to the creation of a single-payer system akin to those in Canada and Great Britain.
Ignagni and Serota reiterated their opposition Tuesday in the letter.
"Creating a new government-run plan would thwart the ability of the healthcare sector to implement meaningful delivery system reforms, exacerbate the cost shifting from public programs to consumers in the private market, and destabilize the employer-based system," they wrote.
But an aide to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is a leader in the effort on Capitol Hill to overhaul the healthcare system, said he would not back away from creating a new government insurance program.
Richard Kirsch, who heads Healthcare For American Now, a leading consumer group in Washington, blasted the letter as cynical ploy.
"It's a sign of their desperation," said Kirsch. "They are still looking to find out how they can charge us as much as they want and have no competition from a public plan."
latimes.com/business/la-fi-health25-2009mar....story