Every day when you read the newspaper, someone is talking about health care. Should the government take over health care? Should we have national health care or should we keep open-market competition like we have now?
These are just a few of the topics and questions being discussed in all facets of our society. Viewpoints come from local, state and federal government, lawyers, insurance companies, and even doctor and other medical groups.
Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain prefers the open-market approach, which means less government involvement in health care. Senators and Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are promoting national health care run by the government. These are clearly two different sides, two different approaches. Either way, we still pay for it.
The figure that we constantly read or hear about is 47 million people across our country are uninsured. I am not sure how those who claim the 47 million actually arrive at that number, but those same statisticians also claim that approximately 20 percent or more of these uninsured people are earning more than $75,000 a year, but they choose not to buy health insurance. A larger amount of these insured individuals are the middle to lower income levels that struggle to make ends meet and just cannot pay health insurance premiums. The remainder of the 47 million will never be able to afford health insurance at today's premiums or at any cost.
So what is the answer? We can wait for Washington to argue back and forth, and then maybe three or four years down the road they will decide on some strategy. But in the meantime, premiums will have gotten even higher. Or maybe we could look at and push for more health care reform at the state level. The last estimate that I saw was that in the state of Florida alone, there are more than 3.5 million uninsured people.
Is there an answer to this dilemma? Probably not as a quick fix, but there are some actions that our state could take that might relieve some of the cost burden for health insurance.
Every state in the country has what are called health insurance mandates. These are state law requirements for very specific health care benefits that an insurance company or health plan must cover or at least offer coverage for. If you do not drink alcohol or misuse drugs, you do not need the alcohol and substance abuse coverage mandate, but you are paying for it anyway. If you are a female who is not having children or a male, you do not need maternity and birthing center coverage mandates, but you have to pay for them.
Across the country there are more than 1,900 such mandates. In the state of Florida alone, there are at least 49 to date that affect individual and group health policies. Each mandate can add somewhere between less than 1 and as much as 10 percent to the cost of health insurance. Combined, these mandates calculate out to additional charges of about 20 percent up to 50 percent, depending on the state. In Florida these mandates add about 20 to 35 percent to our health insurance premiums. Some of these mandates are already included in health insurance coverage by the majority of companies doing business in Florida. Some companies that are based or chartered in other states also have to include some of their home state's mandates, possibly adding more cost.
The way to help fight the rising cost of health insurance may be to allow insurance companies to offer a mandate-free health insurance policy, or offer policies that offer those mandates on an ala carte basis where you can pick and choose the benefit coverage mandates that you need. Just because one mandate is good for one consumer, does not mean that it is good or relevant to another consumer. Maybe we should talk to our legislators and check out the cost impact. It would be nice to have a little more control over the health insurance rates that we pay.
Kim Cummins is the life and health specialist for Des Champs & Gregory, Inc. He can be reached at 748-1812.
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Kim Cummins x kcummins@ deschampsgregory.com
