Thursday, January 20, 2005
New mandate information available
[Victoria Craig Bunce and JP Wieske, "Health Insurance Mandates in the States 2005," The Council for Affordable Health Insurance, January 2005.]
The Council for Affordable Health Insurance just released this excellent update to their earlier report on the negative impact of health insurance mandates on affordability. Not only are the numbers updated, but they now include cost estimates on a mandate-by-mandate level. Kansas has 37 in all, and any politician who claims to be concerned about reducing the number of uninsured without tackling these is being disingenuous at best:
The Council for Affordable Health Insurance tracks the introduction and passage of health insurance mandates in every state. The information is broken down on a state-by-state basis into three categories: benefits, providers and covered populations. Totals for each state and mandate are also included. Thus anyone can easily determine how many mandates and which ones each state has passed.
It may be tempting to think that since a particular mandate doesn’t add much to the cost of a health insurance policy, there is no reason for legislators to oppose it. The result of this reasoning is that many states have 40, 50 or more mandates. Although one mandate may only increase the cost of a policy by 1%, 40 such mandates will price many people out of the market. It is the accumulated impact of dozens of mandates that makes health insurance inaccessible to people. Where health insurance may have been affordable, adding additional benefits to a comprehensive policy will price some people out of the health insurance market.
[Matthew Hisrich, "State Mandates reduce insurance affordability," The Flint Hills Center, May 2004.]
[Victoria Craig Bunce and JP Wieske, "Health Insurance Mandates in the States 2005," The Council for Affordable Health Insurance, January 2005.]
The Council for Affordable Health Insurance just released this excellent update to their earlier report on the negative impact of health insurance mandates on affordability. Not only are the numbers updated, but they now include cost estimates on a mandate-by-mandate level. Kansas has 37 in all, and any politician who claims to be concerned about reducing the number of uninsured without tackling these is being disingenuous at best:
The Council for Affordable Health Insurance tracks the introduction and passage of health insurance mandates in every state. The information is broken down on a state-by-state basis into three categories: benefits, providers and covered populations. Totals for each state and mandate are also included. Thus anyone can easily determine how many mandates and which ones each state has passed.
It may be tempting to think that since a particular mandate doesn’t add much to the cost of a health insurance policy, there is no reason for legislators to oppose it. The result of this reasoning is that many states have 40, 50 or more mandates. Although one mandate may only increase the cost of a policy by 1%, 40 such mandates will price many people out of the market. It is the accumulated impact of dozens of mandates that makes health insurance inaccessible to people. Where health insurance may have been affordable, adding additional benefits to a comprehensive policy will price some people out of the health insurance market.
[Matthew Hisrich, "State Mandates reduce insurance affordability," The Flint Hills Center, May 2004.]
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