NEW YORK TIMES: President Obama, on a trip to Tennessee this week, said that consumers should put pressure on state insurance regulators to scrutinize the proposed rate increases. If commissioners do their job and actively review rates, he said, “my expectation is that they’ll come in significantly lower than what’s being requested.”
The rate requests, from some of the more popular health plans, suggest that insurance markets are still adjusting to shock waves set off by the Affordable Care Act.
It is far from certain how many of the rate increases will hold up on review, or how much they might change. But already the proposals, buttressed with reams of actuarial data, are fueling fierce debate about the effectiveness of the health law… (more)
EDITOR: Health insurance companies by their very being drive up costs by say 25%. There is no reason for these intermediaries to exist. Under a single payer system (an example being “Medicare for everyone”) used by other advanced nations, the only health insurers that exist are there to offer supplementary services.
We spend over 18% of Gross National Product a year on health care, versus an average of about 10% for nations rated far ahead of the USA for overall quality. At least 3% of that 18% could be saved through reforming the system.
That is big money… needed for investments on repairs and improving our infrastructure and educational system.
