How Health Insurance Reform Benefits NC Residents
Submitted by ke851 on Fri, 08/07/2009 - 3:25pm
You can read the full article at the below link:
http://www.healthreform.gov/reports/statehealthreform/northcarolina.html
Stable and Secure Health Care for North Carolina
How Health Insurance Reform will Benefit North Carolina
LOWER COSTS FOR RESIDENTS OF NORTH CAROLINA
•Ending the Hidden Tax – Saving You Money: Right now, providers in North Carolina lose over $1.3 billion in bad debt which often gets passed along to families in the form of a hidden premium “tax”. Health insurance reform will tackle this financial burden by improving our health care system and covering the uninsured, allowing the 113 hospitals and the 26,716 physicians in North Carolina to better care for their patients.
•Health Insurance Premium Relief: Premiums for residents of North Carolina have risen 91% since 2000.4 Through health insurance reform, 1,405,200 to 1,577,800 middle class North Carolina residents will be eligible for premium credits to ease this burden.
•Strengthening Small Businesses: 128,153 employers in North Carolina are small businesses. With tax credits and a health insurance exchange where they can shop for health plans, insurance coverage will become more affordable for them.
•Reforms that Reduce Your Costs: Under health insurance reform, insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive. Insurance companies will also have to abide by yearly limits on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses, helping 63,400 households in North Carolina struggling under the burden of high health care expenses.
INCREASE YOUR CHOICES: PROTECTING WHAT WORKS AND FIXING WHAT'S BROKEN
•Insurance Stability and Security: Health insurance reform will strengthen our system of employer-based health insurance, with an additional 86,500 people in North Carolina potentially getting insurance through their work. Health insurance reform will also ensure that you will always have guaranteed choices of quality, affordable health insurance if you lose your job, switch jobs, move or get sick.
•Eliminating Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions, Health Status or Gender: 9% of people in North Carolina have diabetes9, and 29% have high blood pressure – two conditions that insurance companies could use as a reason to deny you health insurance. Health insurance reform will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage based on your health, and it will end discrimination that charges you more if you’re sick or a woman.
•One-Stop Shopping – Putting Families in Charge: With the new health insurance exchange, you can easily and simply compare insurance prices and health plans and decide which quality affordable option is right for you and your family. These proposals will help the 1,547,200 residents of North Carolina who currently do not have health insurance to obtain needed coverage, and it will also help the 435,800 North Carolina residents who currently purchase insurance in the individual insurance market.
•Guaranteeing Choices: The largest health insurer in North Carolina holds 47% of the market, which limits the choices that you have for finding coverage. With a competitive public insurance option, you will have more choices and increased competition that holds insurance companies accountable.
ASSURE QUALITY, AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICANS
•Preventive Care for Better Health: 33% of North Carolina residents have not had a colorectal cancer screening, and 18% of women have not had a mammogram in the past 2 years. By requiring health plans to cover preventive services for everyone, investing in prevention and wellness, and promoting primary care, health insurance reform will work to create a system that prevents illness and disease instead of just treating it when it’s too late and costs more.
•Improving Care for Children and Seniors: 22% of children in North Carolina have not visited a dentist in the past year, and 29% of seniors did not receive a flu vaccine. Health reform will ensure coverage for kids’ dental, vision, and hearing needs, and will promote quality coverage for America’s seniors, including recommended immunizations.
When you can fit this on a bumper sticker
Or at least whittle it down to something you can scream at Howard Coble on his way in to work, you might have something.
I know, I know. Stop trolling. There's serious progressive think-tanking going on. Only days left to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Employer-based
One of the biggest problems with our system is that it is mostly employer-based. Health insurance should have no more to do with one's job than homeowner's insurance does. Efforts to "strengthen our system of employer-based health insurance" are counterproductive.
Any reform should diminish the role of employer-based coverage and should certainly avoid more "hidden taxes" by tossing out the parts of the current proposals that include new payroll taxes, mandatory coverage, etc.
That's right
Employers desperately want out of the healthcare business, as well they should. I with they would all unilaterally eliminate healthcare benefits for all their employees starting on January 1, 2010. That would change the dynamic of this debate instantly.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
The flip side
One business concern I have about coverage becoming more available and affordable on the open market is how many good employees I might lose. You can bet that many people work at a particular place or even work at all just so they can get affordable health insurance. Don't get me wrong. I am not in support of a system of health insurance that creates this type of bond or obligation, but there is a reality here.
Even if I passed along to my employees every health insurance penny saved by no longer funding our group health plan, the value of those few extra bucks a month comes nowhere near the value of having coverage in the first place. I lose the labor market competitive advantage of being an employer who provides coverage. Seeing as how my business is not exactly profitable so far this year, I can't pay anyone, including myself any more than I already do(if there is enough money to pay myself at all). Of course, right now we are all happy just to have jobs, but things will get better.
Come to think of it, removing the employer-based bias of our system really encourages a much freer employment market. With health insurance no longer an employment benefit/bond and preexisting conditions no longer obstacles, people will be freer to choose where they work. Could it be that those in favor of healthcare reform are really free-market fundamentalists?
Good question
Business can offer whatever benefits they wish ... they'll always be able to do that. But they shouldn't be required to.
But don't worry, there will be other "bonds" ... the whole issue of talent branding is all the rage these days, and company's spend huge amounts to get themselves known as great places to work. Healthcare is only a tiny piece of that puzzle.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.