Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Should CA Look East?, Pt.2 – Some favor FL or NJ...

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Now, consider a “Cafeteria-style insurance” menu. The conventional approach has always been that “Lobbyists for every conceivable health care treatment have persuaded states to require insurers to sell the whole menu or nothing.” At this writing, there are as many as 1,900 mandates, nationwide, forced by different states on health insurance companies. Many have been placed at the hands of these care-treatment lobbyists. But in Florida, the Legislature and Gov. Crist recently implemented a system where their residents will get to pick from a menu of choices for just what they want. They are not forced to pay for coverage they may never use. These “stripped-down” versions are projected to greatly reduce premium costs. One of the most attractive features of Florida’s plan is, as Gov. Crist puts it is “It doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime.” Note, however, this plan has not yet been implemented due to a plethora of vagaries, still being bandied by lawmakers. The theory is very attractive but, just like that in Massachusetts, some very important loopholes could slip through the cracks.

Looking to New Jersey, with their exorbitant health insurance costs being twice the national average ($10,398 vs. $5,799 per family), a new, more reasonable remedy is being introduced. The bill being introduced would allow residents of that state to purchase health insurance premiums at the best cost they can find from among all 50 states. This allows a greatly expanded set of alternatives to escape the very high costs of the local health insurance plans available to them now. It serves to by-pass the very costly plans so “inflated by multiple mandates on in-state insurance sellers.” As reported in the Wall Street Journal, a plan for a male, 25years of age with good health in New Jersey right now would cost about $5,880 per year. That same plan, purchased in Kentucky would only cost around $960. The two main attractions promoted here are “Knocking down the props that hold up prices without [costing taxpayers] a dime.”