Insurance Technologies

WASHINGTON- A little over a year ago it was the health insurance industry that was saying that it would support President Obama’s efforts to improve health care. in fact there was even one industry leader who said that Congress needs to deal with health insurance reform by the end of the year. But in fact there is no agreement at this time between the Obama administration and the insurance industry because the 10-year health care bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee is set at costing $829 billion as it moves this month toward debate by the full Senate. Arguments have cropped up between the White House and the insurance industry, which have intensified during the weekend. These underscore the possible pitfalls facing the president’s broad plan to reshape health care. it was fifteen years again that the industry got rid of a similar effort using an intense advertising effort. Speaking on Sunday’s ABC This Week, White House adviser David Axelrod said that the insurance industry has decided now at this late date that they are not in support of the program. He says that the present health care system is very good for the insurance industry but not good for consumers. America’s Health Insurance Plans, which is the trade group representing that insurance companies, last March, said that insurers are going to stop charging higher premiums to sick people and that they will stop denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. In exchange for these moves, the organization is asking only that legislators require every American to purchase health insurance. The president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, Karen Ignagni, says that she supports the comments she made to a congressional House committee last June in which she urged lawmakers to act on health care this year. The problem is, she says, is that the bill produced by the Finance Committee does not go far enough in requiring that everyone purchase health coverage. The separate bill that was passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee would create a fine of up to $750 for individuals who refuse to purchase their own insurance coverage by the year 2013. In the Finance Committee bill there is a similar fine but it is phased in so that no one need pay the full amount before 2017. According to Ignagni along with the insurance executives in general, this phasing in would allow the younger, healthier people to delay their buying coverage until they get sick. If this were the case the result would be that everyone else would have to pay higher premiums. She stresses that for sometime they have been warning of the real consequences of such a law. Senator Tom Harkins who is a Democrat from Iowa and also chairman of the Senate HELP Committee says that insurers are getting some congressional support for the stiffer penalties none that the committee is right to set a higher fine. He says that a penalty is necessary so that people won’t see the penalty as being cheaper for them to pay than regular insurance premiums.