Thursday, January 28, 2010

Ban Underwriting and Call It A Day?

A reader asks Consumer Reports, "Why not ban underwriting of pre-existing conditions?".

Here is part of their response.

But there’s a problem with that when it comes to health care. In the U.S., we spend more than $7,000 a year on health care for every man, woman, and child. "Even if you had every person in America in the risk pool, a family of four would have to pay $28,000 for health care," said Karen Pollitz, an insurance expert at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. "That’s why you’ll never expand coverage without subsidies."


Subsidies do nothing to reduce the cost of health care, which is the primary driver of health insurance premiums. Subsidies come from taxes, that come from tax payers.

Subsidies just rearrange the deck chairs.
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