The Health Wonk Review is up at the Disease Management Care Blog.  The Colorado Health Insurance Insider post about HR676 is included. Insure Blog has a good post about Fed Chairman Bernanke’s assessment of health care costs.  I agree with Hank that health care costs are driving health insurance premiums.  But I think there’s more to it than that.  I think it’s also excessive admin costs, and the price of having health insurance as a business entity.  The costs associated with expanding a US industry into places like China have to be paid by someone.  Those are expenses that a government-run health care system doesn’t encounter.

We Stand Firm has an article about the mandatory waist measurements in Japan, designed to combat obesity by a government that pays for its citizens’ health care.  True, this would probably rankle most Americans as being way too invasive (and I doubt many Americans would meet the strict Japanese guidelines!), but anyone who has to get private individual health insurance in this country already goes through a much more invasive application process than Japan’s waist-measuring.  Not only are height and weight questioned, but a person’s entire health history is dissected by medical underwriters to determine if the applicant is eligible for coverage.  Because most Americans have group health insurance, the process of obtaining underwritten individual health insurance isn’t widely understood - it’s pretty darn invasive, and can be impossible for people with any significant medical history.

Health Access has a post about gender discrimination in health insurance.  Charging different rates to men and women is standard practice in the individual health insurance industry, where we work.  I’ve long thought that this is a poor practice (maybe because I’m a woman, paying higher rates than a man the same age?)  I have no problem with health insurance carriers charging higher rates to smokers, or people who are overweight.  These are personal choices, and do contribute to higher medical costs.  But gender isn’t something we choose.  As such, I think it would be more fair to figure out an average premium and charge it to men and women alike.  Interestingly enough - women pay more for individual health insurance until about age 50 - 55.  After that, the trend reverses, and premiums are higher for men than for women.  Definitely actuarial science at its best, but something that I think should be taken into account and averaged over the whole population.

David at Health Business Blog has a post about Aetna and their new financial incentive lottery program to encourage insureds on a blood-thinner to take their medication.  I love when health insurance companies use innovative ideas to get patients to take some of the responsibility for their own health.  Whether this will work or not remains to be seen in terms of long-term stroke outcomes for these patients.  But I like the idea. 

And I loved David Hamilton’s post about drug companies and medical equipment manufacturers marketing directly to patients.  We’ve made our views on this very clear - advertising to consumers has no place in these industries, and their "marketing" to doctors and hospitals should consist strictly of information and technical know-how, rather than gifts and incentives.

Thanks to Jaan at Disease Management Care Blog for hosting!