As if a more compelling reason were needed, today it becomes increasingly clear that doing nothing about health care reform is not an option, reports Talking Points Memo in, "Anthem Rate Hikes Just Tip Of Iceberg - Premiums Going Way Up In Six More States."
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today will release a new report showing more dramatic health insurance premium increases are proposed in Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington.
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The report quotes National Association of Insurance Commissioners officials predicting the nation will "see rate increases of 20, 25, 30 percent."
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"Last year, as working families struggled with rising health care costs and a recession, the five largest health insurance companies - WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, Aetna, and Humana - took in combined profits of $12.2 billion, up 56 percent over 2008.
"These health insurance companies' profits grew even as nominal GDP decreased by 1 percent over this same time period.
"And recent data show that the CEOs of America's five largest insurers were each compensated up to $24 million in 2008."
If Idaho Republicans have a plan, they better come with it, since the Legislature has declared "sovereignty" over health care reform in Idaho.
Ezra Klein at the Washington Post explains why the "selling insurance across state lines" piece of the Republican health care reform plan (touted recently by Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson) will "not change the number of insured Americans or save much money, but it would make insurance more expensive for the sick and cheaper for the healthy" in "Selling insurance across state lines: A terrible, no good, very bad health-care idea."
They want insurers to be able to cluster in one state, follow that state's regulations and sell the product to everyone in the country. In practice, that means we will have a single national insurance standard. But that standard will be decided by South Dakota. Or, if South Dakota doesn't give the insurers the freedom they want, it'll be decided by Wyoming. Or whoever.
This is exactly what happened in the credit card industry, which is regulated in accordance with conservative wishes. In 1980, Bill Janklow, the governor of South Dakota, made a deal with Citibank: If Citibank would move its credit card business to South Dakota, the governor would literally let Citibank write South Dakota's credit card regulations. You can read Janklow's recollections of the pact here.
Citibank wrote an absurdly pro-credit card law, the legislature passed it, and soon all the credit card companies were heading to South Dakota. And that's exactly what would happen with health-care insurance. The industry would put its money into buying the legislature of a small, conservative, economically depressed state. The deal would be simple: Let us write the regulations and we'll bring thousands of jobs and lots of tax dollars to you. Someone will take it. The result will be an uncommonly tiny legislature in an uncommonly small state that answers to an uncommonly conservative electorate that will decide what insurance will look like for the rest of the nation.
Ooh boy... who reads that and doesn't think: Idaho? Be sure to read that whole piece to understand why that's a very bad thing.
And finally, both sides of the health care reform debate essentially agree that community health centers are a good way to provide care for the uninsured. Kaiser Health News reports that, infused with cash from stimulus funds, these centers are paying off in multiple ways, in "Community Health Centers Providing Return On Investment."
A hefty infusion of cash for community health centers in last year's federal stimulus package may be paying off.
A new study, released Tuesday, just before the first anniversary of the stimulus package becoming law, found that $1.85 billion the federal government gave to clinics under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has generated $3.2 billion in economic activity.
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The National Association of Community Health Centers says the stimulus money has funded care for 1.6 million more people, including 900,000 uninsured, at 1,100 centers around the country. Visits by the uninsured to health centers rose 21 percent last year, NACHC says. Centers in California alone are expected to serve more than 380,000 new patients through 2011, according to Capital Link, which provided modeling for the study.
It pays to be stimulated? Stimulus pays? Insert your own corny slogan here.
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