Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Mr. McCain on Health Insurance/Care, Pt.9 – Playing “Risk”; “Chess” strategy & “Dealer’s Choice”

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The ‘Times’ covered both sides of the coin, giving fairness to both sides. But they too, were left with the paradox of cost and funding Mr. McCain’s health insurance plan. The immediate impression was that the McCain camp was as lost as anyone else as to feasibility and sustainability of their proposal. McCain’s proposal, given In April had projected the cost to provide affordable health insurance to the ‘denied’ could be covered with between $7 and $10 billion. Naturally, an asterisk was appended to the end of the statement (The manufacturer offers no guarantees…). When a Presidential contender states his agenda "could change dramatically", just what does that really mean? What this may mean is “almost every one described will be ‘left behind’, sorry”. Will the states be left to shoulder another dictate, like ‘No child left behind’ and also bear the brunt of blame? What about the year-long waiting periods, the extremely high deductibles (as high as $10,000), and ‘life-time cap’ limits for health insurance claims? C’mon voters, let’s wake up and demand some answers.

Moving back to the ‘chessboard’ in a game that began back in the 1970s. Perhaps the most influential interest group the health insurance world has ever known, is the trade group named America's Health Insurance Plans, commonly know as AHIP today. President and CEO of AHIP, Karen Ignagni, claims them to be the largest health insurance national trade group in America. They’re comprised of about 1,300 private health insurers. Altogether they insure over 200 million. Anyway, AHIP’s gambit in this chess game was advocating a unique risk pool solution. For Reno or Las Vegas attorneys, it’s all explained on AHIP’s website and defines the rules and parameters of their ‘table rules’ for their 'risk selection game’ between the ‘gambler’ and the ‘House’.

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