CAHI Study Shows State Legislators Are Driving Up the Cost of Health Care |
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Written by U.S. Insurance News
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Friday, 08 February 2008 |
The Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI) has a message for state legislators across the United States.
They are responsible for the dramatic increase in state-mandated health benefits. And the ultimate result of the actions of these politicians is hurting many of the Americans they are trying to help.
CAHI recently released the 2008 edition of "Health Insurance Mandates in the States," a study that shows state-mandated benefits jumped to 1,961 nationally, up from 1,901 the previous year
Dr. Merrill Matthews, the director of CAHI, explained that while policymakers are increasingly focusing on how to reduce the number of uninsured Americans, the unintended consequence of their efforts is an increase in the cost of health insurance.
"Ironically, these same policymakers continue to pass laws that drive up the cost of coverage and make policies unaffordable for millions of Americans," Matthews stated.
Health insurance mandates require that an insurance company cover specific health care providers, benefits, or patient populations. Mandates make health insurance more comprehensive, but they also make coverage more expensive because they force insurers to pay for things that consumers used to pay for out of their own pockets.
The "Health Insurance Mandates in the States" study tracks hundreds of mandate bills and identifies those that actually pass. The study also includes an estimate, provided by a team of health actuaries, of how much each mandate adds to the cost of a health insurance policy.
The study estimates that mandated benefits increase the cost of basic health coverage from a little less than 20 percent to more than 50 percent, depending on the state and the specific language of the legislation.
"At a time when policymakers are complaining about the high cost of health insurance, CAHI wants state legislators to know they are responsible for the mandate explosion, and what those mandates do to the cost and availability of health insurance," Matthews said. "We hope this publication will encourage them to refrain from exacerbating the problem of health insurance costs and the uninsured."
A copy of the 2008 edition of "Health Insurance Mandates in the States" is available at the CAHI Web site.
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