10.20.2009 2:49 pm
Health insurance should be mandatory and simple
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Response to Sen. Cunningham’s:
The senator’s heart is in the right place but I don’t believe her proposed legislation has much merit. I can’t speak to health care reform but with 17 years of insurance marketing as an agent, I can speak to insurance issues. She believes there should be no mandates. Employment-based health insurance is one of the major problems today, so mandating that businesses provide insurance isn’t a good idea. How many people take and keep a job, not because they love it or are good at it, but because it provides health insurance? How much easier would it be for workers to leave corporate life and start small businesses, or retire early and work for charities, or stay at home to raise children, if health insurance was easy to get, keep and afford? However, without requiring that individuals carry health insurance of some kind, insurance companies cannot be asked to accept all applicants. That’s the quid pro quo!
One of the few insurance reforms that might help the average person is standardized insurance plans– like seniors have when deciding on Medicare supplement coverage. There can be plans ranging from low-cost, high-deductible catastrophic plans to gold-plated, everything-covered options. The benefit of standard plans is this: if a consumer decides the coverage of plan C is most suitable, the person can compare rates and service from all insurers offering plan C, knowing there is no difference in coverage. One of the problems now is that insurance company marketing departments can design brochures that make coverage look identical to another company’s insurance plan but for a lower premium. The difference is in the fine print and the average consumer won’t know about it until a claim happens. That needs to stop! I recently went onto an association website that offered its members over 1000 insurance plans; it was mind-boggling! The current system is complicated. So simplify! Simple is generally less expensive.
One of the few insurance reforms that might help the average person is standardized insurance plans– like seniors have when deciding on Medicare supplement coverage. There can be plans ranging from low-cost, high-deductible catastrophic plans to gold-plated, everything-covered options. The benefit of standard plans is this: if a consumer decides the coverage of plan C is most suitable, the person can compare rates and service from all insurers offering plan C, knowing there is no difference in coverage. One of the problems now is that insurance company marketing departments can design brochures that make coverage look identical to another company’s insurance plan but for a lower premium. The difference is in the fine print and the average consumer won’t know about it until a claim happens. That needs to stop! I recently went onto an association website that offered its members over 1000 insurance plans; it was mind-boggling! The current system is complicated. So simplify! Simple is generally less expensive.
Klaus Illian
Manchester
Interestingly enough, Klaus, none of the legislation proposed will simplify anything.
Simplify is a word this congress does not understand. The current bill is 1502 pages in length, and it’s not even the final bill. By the time the house and senate combine their bills, it will be 4000 pages long, and no two lawyers will interpet it the same.
We will be royally screwed, both monetarily and with our health care.
Reform yes, socialist “Messiahcare” NO!
YOU SOLD INSURANCE!?!?! What’s next, will you sell crack to children? You are under arrest for MURDER in the spreadsheet degree!!
Leeza12:
“YOU SOLD INSURANCE!?!?! What’s next, will you sell crack to children? You are under arrest for MURDER in the spreadsheet degree!!”
It’s obvious you are a rip off and fraud. Your sincerity and stability gives you away every time.
Klaus,
Nice letter. I agree with everything you said. And as I am sure you already know, the Health Insurance Exchange in the healthcare reform bill would provide four tiers of standardized insurance plans: basic, enhanced, premium, and premium-plus.
And wouldn’t it be nice to have a standardized plan that required insurers to cover women who have had Caesarean births without requiring them to get *sterilized*?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/health/01insure.html
In a letter to Ms. Robertson, Golden Rule, which sells individual policies in 30 states, said it would insure a woman who had had a Caesarean only if it could exclude paying for another one for three years. But in Colorado, such exclusions are considered discriminatory and are forbidden, so Golden Rule simply rejects women who have had the surgery, unless they have been sterilized or meet the company’s age requirements.
Ya, health insurance should be manditory. The penalty for non-compliance ought to be to rot on the street as a result of your own neglect. Your well being is not my problem! Healthcare is not a right.
You see how your benevolent altruism always ends up leading to force?
Will this mandatory health insurance work as well as the mandatory AUTO insurance. I know you all have never been hit or heard of a friend or relative hit by an unsured motorist. What’s this, I must pay an uninsured motorist rider on my auto policy, but we have a law that requires EVERYONE to have insurance on their car, DO’H. A friend of mine was hit by an uninsured motorist, it was her fault and the punk cop let her drive away. The plates on her vehicle belonged to a different vehicle plus her drivers license was expired. When he protested the punk cop almost put him in jail. Yeah, this program will really work. Oh yeah, It looks like if you’re already doing what you’re supposted to and providing your family with insurance you’ll probably get to pay another 40% tax on you policy. Yeah, that will get to you eventually. It will be like that “soak the rich” alternative minimum tax. They’ll pass it without a cost of living clause and it will just be a short time before your policy costs enough that you will come under the tax.
Big John, those of us doing what we’re supposed to do are the suckers. There is a steady stream of ads for firms that will negotiate with the IRS or creditors to let you get by with paying a “fraction” of your debts. The taxpayers and consumers who’ve paid on time and stayed within a budget will pick up the tab for you.
There is no longer any concept of personal responsibility. Everything is the fault of society, corporations, history, or not having enough government controls over our lives.
Welcome to the Great Society.
This is due to the girley-men on the Left. They think with their emotions instead of using their brain. They want everything handed to them and don’t want to work too hard for what they have and then complain they don’t have enough. They create gov’t agencies to make certain they don’t have to work too hard and mandate that they need 3 people to screw in a light bulb. They are wimps and reside on the Left side of the aisle.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59D0BR20091014?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=11604&sp=true