David Williams has written an insightful article about how big business concerns about a public health insurance option might be overly dramatic. I do understand the concerns that business owners have, since they believe that a public option will lead to costs being pushed onto private health insurance carriers, who in turn would charge higher premiums. There is no doubt that businesses have felt the sting of rising health insurance premiums for years now. In Colorado, employer-sponsored health insurance premiums rose by almost 87% between 2000 and 2009, while wages increased by only 20.5% over those years. Employees are increasingly seeing higher premiums deducted from their pay, combined with higher deductibles and copays. But employers still pay the lion’s share of many employees’ health insurance premiums, and the prospect of even higher premiums isn’t likely to sit well with them.
Of course, the question remains as to whether or not a public option would actually cause private health insurance premiums to rise more quickly than they already do. David Williams believes that it would not, and has detailed several reasons for this in his article, which is well worth reading.
I found David’s article in Grand Rounds, hosted this week at Non-Clinical Jobs.