Did you get the gaudy Christmas present from a distant relative that has no receipt and can’t be returned? It comes in showy wrapping and may cost more than its practical value. Think crystal candle holders without the candles. Well, this year the federal government plans to give you the gift of health reform.
Lawmakers planned a vote for Christmas Eve, so you may have awakened on Christmas morning relieved to have gotten what you asked for. But Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were reading off last year’s wish list. If they were listening now, they would hear, “More job opportunities and a better economy, please.”
The latest round of polls confirms that a majority of Americans would prefer that the health reform bill not get passed. The Rasmussen weekly tracking poll shows that 41 percent of voters nationwide favor the bill and 55 percent are opposed. There are many poll numbers, but there is one trend that is indisputable; the more people understand what is in the gift box, the less they want it.
Take early poll questions that showed support for a “public option.” This is like asking whether you would want a free car made by the government? Of course we do. Poll questions that explore the expansion of government often miss the trade off. The real question is: Would you want a public option if your taxes may increase, or your premiums may increase, or your current access to medical service may change? We know the answers are overwhelmingly “no.”
When this debate began, the administration pledged to the public, “You can keep the insurance that you have today.” The public is catching on that they may keep their insurance in the short term, but it will cost more. The multiple taxes to pay for the bill start in 2010 and 2011, including $70 billion for health plans, $22 billion for pharmaceuticals, and $20 billion for medical device makers. The majority of these costs will be passed on to customers in premium increases and product costs.
However, the big reform benefits that have been touted by Democrats — the insurance exchange, the insurance mandate, and individual subsidies to pay for insurance — do not get implemented until 2014. So the tax and cost increases that start now will provide no immediate benefit to most people.
Other insurance reforms will start immediately, such as not allowing health plans to deny individual insurance applications based on health history, putting restraints on rescinding individual policies, limiting caps, and mandating certain health benefits. These are changes that the health-plan industry has been supportive of since the beginning of this debate.
Yet, the actual people who will be helped by these changes are less than 1 percent of the population. This fact is especially relevant in Connecticut, where we already have a strongly regulated market with over 55 benefit mandates. We tightened our rescission laws, we offer guaranteed issue to individuals through the Charter Oak Plan, we offer individuals up to age 26 to stay on a family policy, and we have a competitive insurance market. So the biggest impact that most Connecticut residents are going to see from this reform is higher premiums. There is no option for Connecticut to return this gift either, since there is no state opt-out.
The administration touted these insurance reforms to vilify the health plan industry and justify more government expansion into health care. It miscalculated that most health plan customers carry high satisfaction with their health plans and the majority of voters are insured through private health plans. No one is happy with having to pay premiums or having yearly cost increases, myself included. But this is a consumer issue, partly caused by the disconnect between what it costs to provide medical services and who pays for them. This bill does not fix the cost issue, it grows it.
We all agree we can do better to improve the health system and provide more access to more people, but this bill is not the fix we wished for. I expect that in the 2010 elections the voters will be giving a gift back to Congress.
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Stephen Jewett is director of communications and public affairs for ConnectiCare Health Plans, Farmington
