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By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 19, 2010
Health insurance premiums are surging - and conservatives fear that the spectacle will reinvigorate the push for reform.
On the Fox Business Network, a host chided a vice president of WellPoint, which has told California customers to expect huge rate increases: "You handed the politicians red meat at a time when health care is being discussed. You gave it to them!"
Once again, Paul Krugman does his homework and conservatives come out looking like ideologues who support profits over sanity, and corporate markets over public health. Shame!
Conservatives want to hide the facts of the ''California Death Spiral''By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 19, 2010
Health insurance premiums are surging - and conservatives fear that the spectacle will reinvigorate the push for reform.
On the Fox Business Network, a host chided a vice president of WellPoint, which has told California customers to expect huge rate increases: "You handed the politicians red meat at a time when health care is being discussed. You gave it to them!"
So the rate increases, WellPoint insists, aren't its fault: "Other individual market insurers are facing the same dynamics and are being forced to take similar actions."
Indeed, a report released Thursday by the department of Health and Human Services shows that there have been steep actual or proposed increases in rates by a number of insurers.
But here's the thing: suppose that we posit, provisionally, that the insurers aren't the main villains in this story.
Even so, California's death spiral makes nonsense of all the main arguments against comprehensive health reform.
For example, some claim that health costs would fall dramatically if only insurance companies were allowed to sell policies across state lines.
But California is already a huge market, with much more insurance competition than in other states; unfortunately, insurers compete mainly by trying to excel in the art of denying coverage to those who need it most.
And the sad fact is that there are ignorant conservatives out there and here @ USMB who proudly crow that they do not read Krugman or the NYT.Once again, Paul Krugman does his homework ...
... some claim that health costs would fall dramatically if only insurance companies were allowed to sell policies across state lines.
... unfortunately, insurers compete mainly by trying to excel in the art of denying coverage to those who need it most.
And competition hasn't averted a death spiral.
So why would creating a national market make things better?
More broadly, conservatives would have you believe that health insurance suffers from too much government interference. In fact, the real point of the push to allow interstate sales is that it would set off a race to the bottom, effectively eliminating state regulation.
But California's individual insurance market is already notable for its lack of regulation, certainly as compared with states like New York - yet the market is collapsing anyway.
Finally, there have been calls for minimalist health reform that would ban discrimination on the basis of pre-existing conditions and stop there. It's a popular idea, ..........but as every health economist knows, it's also nonsense.
But California's individual insurance market is already notable for its lack of regulation...
Dude, as dopey as you usually are (they don't call IT dope for nothin'), I expect more from you than to mimic the out of context nitwitticisms of a Crusading Fool like Frank.I guess nobody told Krugman that the size of a state is irrelevant to the fact that insurance companies operating in that state all have to comply with the same onerous regulations.
As for propaganda, Krugman excels at it.
He was countering an argument made by others.For example, some claim that health costs would fall dramatically if only insurance companies were allowed to sell policies across state lines.
But California is already a huge market, with much more insurance competition than in other states; unfortunately, insurers compete mainly by trying to excel in the art of denying coverage to those who need it most.
Why do you think you are entitled to the labor of others?
Fortunately...most of us who don't dwell in the lands of nod, smoke and dope...we know Google is a great tool...and we know how to do side by side comparisons of the industry.Krugman also burnishes his reputation ...
But California's individual insurance market is already notable for its lack of regulation...
California Health Insurance Quotes
Then there is the 2003 law, which mandates that employers be forced to provide insurance:
The Cost of California's Health Insurance Act of 2003
Forcing people into the insurance market who would be most likely to use their isnurance as defacto pre-paid medical can't have any positive downward pressure on pricing.
Ain't Google great?
Yeah, really an unregulated marketplace.
-latimes.comHealth insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross said it was raising rates on thousands of individual policyholders in California because the cost of their medical care exceeded the premiums they paid last year.
At the same time, other parts of Anthem reaped a profit. A Times analysis of the company's regulatory filings shows that $525 million in Anthem's earnings in 2009 was shipped to its corporate parent WellPoint Inc. The analysis was not disputed by Anthem.
Anthem Blue Cross has been so profitable that, since WellPoint acquired it in 2004, it has contributed
more than $4.5 billion to the parent company's bottom line.
Critics say some of those gains should have been kept in California and used to cover the losses on Anthem's individual policies. Instead, the company turned to individual policyholders to make up the losses with rate increases of up to 39%.
Krugman also burnishes his reputation as a compulsive liar, in telling this whopper:
But California's individual insurance market is already notable for its lack of regulation...
Amongst the "ailments" required to be covered in Fornicalia:
- Alcoholism
- Drug Abuse Treatment
- In Vitro Fertilization
- Contraceptives
- Mental Health General
- Mental Health Parity
Amongst the practitioners required to be reimburseded by insurance:
- Acupuncturists
- Chiropractors
- Social Workers
- Professional Counselors
- Psychiatric Nurse
- Psychologists
California Health Insurance Quotes
Then there is the 2003 law, which mandates that employers be forced to provide insurance:
The Cost of California's Health Insurance Act of 2003
Forcing people into the insurance market who would be most likely to use their isnurance as defacto pre-paid medical can't have any positive downward pressure on pricing.
Ain't Google great?
Yeah, really an unregulated marketplace.
Why do you think you are entitled to the labor of others?
This is one issue the the HC reform law will address. At a time when people ares struggling, increases like that are uncalled for.
Krugman is an idiot.
Krugman also burnishes his reputation as a compulsive liar, in telling this whopper:
But California's individual insurance market is already notable for its lack of regulation...
Amongst the "ailments" required to be covered in Fornicalia:
