Comments for Health Insurance Crisis

Comment on PCIP unlikely to reduce ranks of medically uninsured by Beverly Cohen

Beverly Cohen — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 04:34:17 +0000

Your article is dead on correct! PCIP is touted as being “affordable” coverage for those with preexisting conditions. That’s a joke. No company will insure me because I have high blood pressure and hypothyroidism and I’m 55. Except for PCIP will! For a whopping $564/month. The average person can’t afford that. Makes me pretty scared to think just how affordable the new health benefit exchanges will be in 2014. Another point. A person works hard their entire life. Pays taxes, struggles to raise families and pay bills. Then, in the blink of an eye, insurance coverage is gone and unobtainable. They end up needing hospitalization for something and are subsequently financially destroyed. I think the government should stop offering insurance coverage to their employees, forcing them to apply for individual/family coverage on their own. Let’s see what happens when they are faced with this crisis.

Comment on “Everything happens at the margin” by Frederick Pilot

Frederick Pilot — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 02:44:57 +0000

I would expect the idea would be resisted by health insurers. The individual mandate was the insurance industry’s sine qua non as the PPACA was being crafted. Insurers want a government enforced insurance pool to bring in more premium payers to cover rising health care costs as well as to counter adverse selection and to achieve a better spread of risk across people of various ages and health conditions. Forcing people to give up their ability to purchase coverage runs directly counter to that notion.

That said, achieving an optimal spread of risk in the health insurance market is inherently difficult given the risk of claims rises with age. It could be argued that the pool naturally tends toward adverse selection with the young invincibles forgoing coverage because they view it as unnecessary and middle aged and older seeing it as essential. Accordingly, forcing younger people to forfeit their ability to buy coverage won’t likely measurably increase the likelihood of their buying coverage.

Comment on “Everything happens at the margin” by Brian H

Brian H — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:45:57 +0000

Interesting article. What is your take on Richard Thaler’s suggestion to replace the mandate with a ‘forfeiture’ of the right to buy health insurance? It could actually work, in my opinion. Yes, the cost issue will continue to be an issue, however I believe the subsidies will be set at levels that could assist the majority of purchasers.

Comment on Individual health insurance market enters death spiral by Robynne Whitaker

Robynne Whitaker — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:36:18 +0000

Good points!!