Insurers May Nix Charging Sick People More

Health Insurance Industry Offers To Phase Out Controversial Practice If All Americans Are Required To Get Coverage

(AP)  The health insurance industry offered Tuesday for the first time to curb its controversial practice of charging higher premiums to people with a history of medical problems.

The offer from America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a potentially significant shift in the debate over reforming the nation's health care system to rein in costs and cover an estimated 48 million uninsured people. It was contained in a letter to key senators.

In the letter, the two insurance industry groups said their members are willing to "phase out the practice of varying premiums based on health status in the individual market" if all Americans are required to get coverage.

"The offer here is to transition away from risk rating, which is one of the things that makes life hell for real people," said health economist Len Nichols of the New America Foundation public policy center. "They have never in their history offered to give up risk rating."

Insurers are trying to head off the creation of a government insurance plan that would compete with them, something that liberals and many Democrats are pressing for. To try to win political support, the industry has already made a number of concessions. Last year, for example, insurers offered to end the practice of denying coverage to sick people. They also said they would support a national goal of restraining cost increases.

The latest offer goes beyond that.

Insurance companies now charge very high premiums to people who are trying to purchase coverage as individuals and have a history of medical problems, such as diabetes or skin cancer. Even if such a person is offered coverage, that individual is often unable to afford the high premiums. About 7 percent of Americans buy their coverage as individuals, while more than 60 percent have job-based insurance.

"This changes everything," said Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, the leading trade group. "When you have everyone in the system, and you can bring (financial) assistance to working families, then you can move away health status rating."

The companies left themselves several outs, however. The letter said they would still charge different premiums based on such factors as age, place of residence, family size and benefits package.

And importantly, the industry did not extend to small businesses their offer to stop charging the sick higher premiums. Small employers who offer coverage can see their premiums zoom up from one year to the next, even if just one worker or family member gets seriously ill.

Ignagni said the industry is working on separate proposals for that problem.

"We are in the process of talking with small business folks across the country," she said. "We are well on the way to proposing a series of strategies that could be implemented for them."

American workers - whose taxes pay for massive government health programs - are getting squeezed like no other group by the nation's health insurance woes.

While just about all retirees are covered, and nearly 90 percent of children have health insurance, workers now are at significantly higher risk of being uninsured than in the 1990s, the last time lawmakers attempted a health care overhaul, according to a study to be released Tuesday.

The study for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that nearly 1 in 5 workers is uninsured, a statistically significant increase from fewer than 1 in 7 during the mid-1990s.

[jart3]

It's about time the Insurance Companies decided to not charge those with what they determine as pre-existing conditions more for insurance! I think they are just reacting to how ANGRY and FED UP the American public is of their outlandish, claim denying, vote buying in Washington ways. They better start changing! So many people are ready for a Single Payer System or Universal Health Care that the Insurance Companies may soon be OUT of the Health Insurance Business! The GREED exhibited by these companies just makes me angry! I read today that "25% of companies are cutting or reducing Health Benefits for their employees" (MSN). Employees and employers have reached their MAX! We cannot afford of sustain the Insurance companies any longer!

[weeoldgoats]

Steve Pelley's piece was excellent. It is the news people really need to be hearing. Now that we know what is going on, what are we going to do about it? The truth is that healthcare in the United States is a myth. It does not exists to help people. There is human experimentation that is funded by our government which makes a select group of "near-der-wells" very rich people and the marketing of chemicals that make other group of people rich. Let us not forget all these organizations like the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association,.. who collected billions of dollars with no accountability who simply pay inflated salaries to more "near-der-wells". About 25 years ago there was roughly a two line piece in the Worcester Telegram about Cancer having been cured. A friend of mine who saw it waited to see or hear more, but nothing more. It seems the American Cancer Society had claimed when it came to be that it would cease operation when Cancer had been cured. I am very sure when they made the claim they had no notion of just how profitable an enterprise they would become. Most people can't concieve of people letting other people die so others can get rich ,but live long enough and it is so up in your face you can't miss it . Steve's piece puts it on the front page, but I am sure there are many who are still in denial. I do believe cancer has been cured and people are surviving, but not people who go the generic mainstream route that is offered to us with some kind of health insurance and assets. We are a country that will take in the poor and ill from any third world country, but trip over our own sick and needy giving "charity" to others. It strikes me more of a floor show than charity. Another interesting thing is that if you have assets "the healthcare industry" will hunt you down like a dog and insist you need services when you reach a certain age. I know it happened to my father. I was still naive at the time, but a misdiagonisis, doctor precipitated heart attack, and a near fatal poisoning sure opened up my eyes. Then they attempted to take action to keep my father permanently in the "rehab facility" where he was being poisoned. I called the doctor on his actions for all the good it did. I was clear and decisive I didn't just go off on him. When my father was discharged with his medication cards was when I discovered just how much Haldol he was being loaded with . No wonder he was near comatose. I fired the doctor, but the damage had been done. My father lived about a year and a half after the episode. Two years after his death I got a call out of the blue, Oh by the way your father's prostate biopsy was read incorrectly. He did have cancer, but it didn't cause his death! After the shock of the call I thought to myself how the hell did they know that! My father was what I call "nursing home bait" cause he owned a home and was a senior. He had assets. It didn't matter that he wanted no part of the healthcare system, because once he was labeled as having a dementia he was their's. Their chops were watering. The doctor blanketly dx him as the Big "A". When I questioned the diagnosis I was told by Dr. Sander's all dimentias are treated the same. That is not accurate, but try and fight the mighty healthcare machine when you have something they want they will be on you like flies on horse manure and destroy you if you get in their way. Unlike those people who didn't have health insurance and became invisible my father was all they could see. I filed complaints and got a pat on the head. It was a painful eye opening experience. I saved my father's records not out of bitterness, but so I will never for get and trust a system that should never be trusted.
What about that Cancer Center of America what is their track record?
Steve, the same kind of greed and evil is as pervasive in the healthcare industry as we are now seeing coming out of the financial industry, except in healthcare we are talking about people's lives! Steve Pelley, Thank you for the piece Sunday there is so much work yet to be done. Health Insurance is only about funding the Insurance companies not about providing services to people.

[dreamland4ever]

Healthcare Now on facebook and send petition for single payer insurance. Or go to healthcarereform.gov and let them know what you think...We need health care for all and stop the health insurance mafia from taking these payoffs we have to pay them not to seize our property while they offer us no health care when we get a serious illness.

[franktor0]

there is nothing more important for a country to give its citizens than a good healthcare plan.healthy citizens are happy people. it is a total disgrace for the usa to have the healthcare crises it has now,healthcare should not be a business as it is now.the 60 minutes segment was heartbreaking,and it is urgent, very urgent that the politicians,health care plans,doctors nurses, etc get together and give every american good healthcare.forget for now national security,education, ect. the number one problem is healthcare.we need healthcare reform ASAP.

[agathe1-2009]

I have had Individual Health Insurance for the last 8 years because my employer does not have health coverage for me (One employer - one employee) My boss does have Medicare coverage though. I have the least expensive with the least benefits yet I am paying almost three hundred dollars a month. In 8 years my premium went from 100 dollars a month to 290 dollars. I am still 5 years shy from being Medicare eligible. I couldn't wait for the day I turn 65. That's pitiful.

[marmann-2009]

Oh, how kind of them!

I can't begin to describe how angry I became when I saw the 60 Minutes segment about the cancer clinic closing due to lack of funds.

After greedy, immoral Wall Street crooks created a worldwide economic crisis, while walking away with millions or billions, there are Americans who have been handed death sentences because of lack of MONEY.

As far as what insurers may or may not do, the entire health "insurance" industry needs to become extinct. These links are a little old, but they give you an idea of how much healthcare "insurance" executives earn: http://blogs.webmd.com/mad-about-medicine/2007/08/ceo-compensation-who-said-healthcare-is.html and http://www.harp.org/hmoexecs.htm.

Certainly, these outrageous salaries, combined, would go a long way toward funding a non-profit healthcare plan. No doubt much of their income comes as an incentive for denying benefits to patients. You insure your car because you MIGHT have an accident someday. You insure your home because you MIGHT need to file a claim someday. However, EVERYONE will become ill at some point in his/her life, and we have now become a country that will only accept "survival of the fittest," while systematically "thinning out the herd" based on who has the least amount of income.

Capitalism is good for some things, but it's the absolute most immoral idea that one's ability to live or die in a country like America is contingent on how rich that person is. Left unchecked, these companies, in my opinion, are well on their way to becoming the next AIG that the government will bail out, while leaving millions of people to die.

Hugo Chavez treats sick people much better than Americans do.

I've NEVER been so ashamed to be an American. This has to stop.

GET RID OF HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES ALTOGETHER.

[dreamland4ever]

So what happen to Obama's ... extending cobra coverage to the unemployed.....during this recession, depression?

[babooph]

The bloodsucking,corrupt ,lobbying[bribing],insurance industry is a large part of the healthcare mess.

[MalloryDavis]

They are so magnanimous aren't they...? YEESH!

This proves they padded and stole our money and now they will relent if there's national health care. All of us need to realize that this economy, government is nothing of what we thought it was. For me, at least, it is more corrupt than I've ever seen. No one is held responsible. 'They' can do what ever they want to us and they skate.

Let's get powerful....

[MalloryDavis]

They are so magnanimous aren't they...? YEESH!