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February 17, 2002 at 07:00 PM
HIAA President: Maintaining Affordability Of Health Insurance Is #1 Challenge
By
Washington
Maintaining the affordability of health insurance is the number one economic challenge facing the health insurance industry, says Donald Young, president of the Health Insurance Association of America.
At a press briefing, Young outlined the legislative issues HIAA will confront this year.
With health care costs increasing at the fastest rate in a decade, Young says, the ball is now in Congress court to avoid enacting legislation that will add to the cost of health insurance and make it even more unaffordable.
Issues such as a patients bill of rights and mental health parity would increase costs significantly, Young says.
Indeed, he says, while much of the attention surrounding patients bill of rights legislation focuses on liability, and whether health care dollars should go to the trial bar, that is only part of the problem.
Both the House and the Senate versions of the legislation (H.R. 2563 and S. 1052, respectively) contain both benefit mandates and administrative requirements that would increase costs, Young says.
One problem, he adds, is that the budget surpluses that Congress wanted to use to finance a range of health care initiatives are now gone.
“The threat is that as public money dries up, lawmakers will be more tempted than ever to impose costly mandates on private health insurers,” Young says.
And the bill will be paid by those who purchase health insurance, he says, who are businesses and workers.
On another issue, optional federal chartering of insurance companies, Young says HIAA is closely following the current debate, but does not yet have a position.
Young says HIAA has long supported state regulation of insurance, but notes that the federal government is becoming more active in health insurance.
Moreover, he says, state mandated benefit laws are troubling and make health insurance more expensive.
Meanwhile, health insurers are giving mixed reviews to President Bushs speech last week outlining his health care agenda for 2002.
In a speech at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Bush discussed the health care proposals contained in his fiscal year 2003 budget, including tax credits for the uninsured, a Medicare prescription drug benefit and a patients bill of rights that avoids “needless litigation.”
