Can they do that? Insurance companies rushing to raise rates ahead of reform bill
Insurance companies are attempting to raise rates
And you thought the health care battles were over—turns out that the colossal effort to get a health reform bill passed earlier this year was just the opening shot in a wider war, and the second front is quickly forming. Insurance companies across the country are rushing to impose premium rate increases ahead of the implementation of the reform bill, which doesn’t fully kick-in until 2014. Californians saw this earlier in the year when Blue Cross-Anthem tried to impose a rate increase as high as 32%, after later backing down. Before the reform law establishes a new health care safety net the average consumers of health insurance are in for a rough ride: states are cutting Medicaid budgets for the poorest Americans; special extended COBRA coverage for unemployed Americans is about to run out; and rising healthcare prices and skyrocketing insurance premiums will sock the already insured. Is a health care crisis—the kind that this reform bill was supposed to head off—inevitable?
Guests:
Mollyann Brodie, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation; director of the Foundation’s public opinion & survey research
Jonathan Gruber, professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research
- Patt Morrison for June 23, 2010
- San Bernardino dog owners get pit-bullied into spaying and neutering their dogs
- Middle-aged suicide on the rise
- Can they do that? Insurance companies rushing to raise rates ahead of reform bill
- Let the war over California’s carbon begin: anti-AB32 proposition makes the November ballot
- Restrepo: a war movie through the eyes of a soldier
Also on this episode
Events
Comedy Congress Live
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
7:30 p.m.
- 9 p.m.
The comedic material emanating from Washington D.C., and state capitols across the country, is enough to make any sitcom writer jealous, even if most of that comedy is unintentional. Our motto on Comedy Congress is that just when politics makes you want to cry, it’s usually best to laugh.
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