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October 15, 2009 at 08:00 PM
Congress should be paying more attention to the effects of insurer consolidation on health coverage rates, a benefits broker says.
The major reform bills now before Congress could make matters worse, rather better, by tightening the grip the biggest carriers have on the health insurance market, according to Samuel Fleet, president of AmWINS Group Benefits, Warwick, R.I., the benefits brokerage unit of AmWINS Group Inc., Charlotte, N.C.
Fleet argues that one of the most important forces shaping the health insurance market is the dominance of the for-profit Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans; UnitedHealth Group Inc., Minnetonka, Minn.; Aetna Inc., Hartford; and CIGNA Corp., Philadelphia.
Not one of the major health bills would reduce the health giants’ dominance, and some provisions might make the giants more powerful, Fleet says.
