May 2009

Subsidies Are Key To Making A Mandate Work

by Louise May 29, 2009

[...] As of 2007, Colorado ranked 33rd in the nation in terms of percentage of working age adults (18 – 64) without health insurance. One in five working-age adults in Colorado is uninsured. My guess is that the majority of those people would love to have health insurance – if they could afford it. Most of the people who don’t have insurance cite cost as the main reason.

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Designing An Effective, Enforceable, Individual Mandate

by Guest May 26, 2009

[...] As readers of the Colorado Health Insurance Insider know, Insurance markets pool risk. An insurance system will only work if the exposures of low risk individuals are pooled together with the exposures of higher risk individuals. Life insurance, homeowner’s insurance, auto insurance; they all work the same way. If health insurers are required to offer guaranteed access without an effective mandate requiring all Americans to maintain coverage, there would be a clear disincentive for healthy people to secure or maintain coverage. [...]

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Colorado Senate Bill 88 Signed Into Law

by Louise May 24, 2009

I missed this news last week, but apparently I wasn’t the only one: Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 88 into law last Monday, granting dental and health insurance benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian state employees. Even the bill’s sponsors didn’t know until after the fact that it had been signed by the governor. [...]

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Gender, Age, Geography, and Health Insurance Premiums

by Louise May 19, 2009

The new proposal put forth by AHIP would take into account only age and geography (not gender) when setting rates. Jaan points out that while this is all well and good, doesn’t it leave things open to cries of foul regarding ageism and geographism? In my opinion, it does. Age and gender are both factors that are beyond our control, and to a large part, so is geographical location. [...]

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Gay Marriage And Health Insurance Benefits

by Louise May 18, 2009

I am not sure where to begin dissecting the logic in RNC Chairman Michael Steel’s recent attempt to sway public opinion on gay marriage. He is trying to turn gay marriage into an economic issue by maintaining that it will hurt profits for businesses if they have to provide health insurance benefits to partners of gay employees. [...]

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Steps Towards Health Care Reform

by Louise May 15, 2009

The House has pledged to have a sweeping health care reform bill on the floor by the end of July, and details are starting to come out about the direction they want to take. Requiring everyone to have health insurance coverage is one of the cornerstones of the reform, and I strongly believe that without this piece of the puzzle in place, no reform will truly be effective. [...]

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Some Government Can Be A Good Thing

by Louise May 14, 2009

I always appreciate it when someone actually throws a potential solution into the mix, rather than just complaining about the way things are/were/will be. The Happy Hospitalist has outlined his ideas for healthcare reform in a comment on his blog. I like his out of the box thinking, and the simplicity. But there are some issues that immediately come to mind [...]

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Insuring Low Income Children Through Tax Returns

by Louise May 10, 2009

[...] In Colorado, there are 100,000 children who are eligible for Medicaid or CHP+ but remain uninsured. The state is working to expand access to these programs, but getting those 100,000 kids enrolled would make a good dent in the number of uninsured children in Colorado. And tax returns are a great way to identify families that qualify for state-funded health insurance. [...]

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Reid Absent In Sick Around America

by Louise May 5, 2009

[...] Reid wanted to make Sick Around America into a push towards national health insurance, and the producers wanted more of a documentary of how the health care system currently works. Reid withdrew from the film and asked that his interviews be edited out – he’s not in the new documentary at all, which will make it quite a bit different from last year’s show. [...]

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