We are proposing that Congress should pass legislation requiring all 50 states to offer non-profit insurance plans, or HIPs. Approximately 2.5 million people in the
Typically insurance companies keep between 15 to 25 percent of premiums they collect to cover administrative and marketing costs, plus profit. With our reform, states would have to offer insurance for these people and the money would be used for services and administrative costs only, none for big profits. HIPs would be financed by small assessments on premiums paid to private insurers, thus being able to spread the cost of covering the uninsured over a broader base than what is done currently.
Premiums for employer-based health insurance rose 5 percent in 2008. Workers on average are paying 12 percent more than they did in 2008. With non-profit insurance plans these increases would cease and premiums would be lowered. With cheaper premiums available more people would be able to afford health care. In 2006, the insurance industry made more than $15 billion in profit. With non-profit insurance plans in place, that $15 billion dollars could be kept in the hands of the people. Also, capping HIP premiums and imposing assessments on premiums provided by private insurers can keep HIPs affordable.
HIPs can increase access to health insurance by allowing the insurers to put people with pre-existing medical conditions into pools and subsidizing their premium. Currently, states that do not offer HIPs require private insurers to write policies for the medically uninsurable that creates problems for the insured majority, such as higher premiums, and maintains a larger number of uninsured. Access to quality medical care can be maintained with HIPs since there will still be free-market principles applied to health care and continued limited government involvement.
According to an article from the Alliance for Advancing Nonprofit Health Care, nonprofit health care plans act differently than for profit plans in regards to performance, efficiency, and contribution to safety net programs. A study was done on the
People may find that our health care reform will not work due to some increase in costs and more influence from the government. Although non-profit Health Care Plans are becoming more popular, it is unlikely the
It is unfair that many health care plans turn down people in the special population’s category. Our reform proposal aims to make sure this population is covered by health insurance. Ordinary health insurance usually does not work for people with pre-existing conditions. However, HIPs provide affordable health insurance to a much larger group of people. Moving to nonprofit care would eventually create fairness in the world of health care. Also, we would have a system that ultimately insures the uninsurable. This is an important concept in order to prevent the sick population from getting sicker.
American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. (2009). Pharmaceutical and Health Insurance Companies are Pulling in Huge Profits. Retrieved February 26, 2009, from http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/facts_insurancecompanyprofits.cfm
Benefits of Nonprofit Health Plans to a Region (2008).
Meier, C. (1999). Extending Affordable Health Insurance to the Uninsurable. Medical Sentinel, vol. 4, 6 ed., 216-217. Retrieved February 27, 2009 from http://www.jpands.org/hacienda/meier.html
National Coalition on Health Care. (2009). Health Insurance Cost. Retrieved February 26,2009, from http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml
Shi, Leiyu, and Singh, Doughlas A. (2008) Delivering Health Care in
I am a nurse working in one of the local clinics in town. I specifically work with the adult population from 18 to 99. I see with increasing alarm more chronically ill people who have lost their insurance and now because of a pre-existing health condition cannot get new insurance. I see the elderly population not being able to afford the high cost medications needed to treat their illnesses so they go without. Actually the people that already have disability insurance or qualify for state aid insurance do better than the elderly or low middle income patient that can no longer work and now has no insurance. We have to reform health care including insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies to provide coverage for all, to assist with cost of drugs, to provide preventitive care so we lessen the burden of chronic disease care. One of the biggest travesties I witness every day is the person who can't get the new, great drug on the market for their disease because insurance won't cover it, they can't afford it or their income is too high to qualify for pharmaceutical company drug assistance. We need a plan to help more evenly spread the coverage and medications available to all Americans from those without coverage, who have just lost their coverage or those who, because of income, fall through the cracks in the system.
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