Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

2nd Opinion on Health Insurance reform, Pt.3 -- Industry Speaks Out

It’s not all bad news. Interestingly, there are a few important points that the two groups do agree on. One is the urgency of getting a handle on out-of-control spending. Medical spending now comprises more than $2 trillion per year (a staggering 16% of our nation’s GDP). It has tripled over the last 40 years. Even more daunting, it is projected to increase another 20% by the year 2017. The next rub is employer contributions. According to the Comonwealth plan, Employers would be required to either provide employee health insurance plans to their workers or else contribute to the proposed “Medicare connect” portal, which provides for those who don’t have employee health insurance nor private health insurance. In order to raise about $45 billion needed, this could be up to $1.25 per hour for each employee they have (as much as 7% of earnings). Representing large employers, the vice president for policy at the National Business Group on Health, Steve Wojcik believes this would likely be opposed by most companies.

President of the Commonwealth Fund, Karen Davis concedes that some businesses would likely see increased costs as a result of her plan. Categories such as employers who do not offer employee health insurance, health care providers that don’t provide service to those enrolled in current public plans and those selling individual health plans with a high mark-up for the sick or even declining them altogether. Karen’s summary addressing these issues with: "Each of these features certainly has elements that will give pause to some groups." "But I think the basic bottom line is that if everyone will give a little, it means you can get universal coverage."