State mandates on health insurance are a major factor in the high cost of coverage. I did some research to find out what I'm paying for (and don't want or need):
State: Maryland
Cost of Coverage: about $500/month
Here are just a few of the dozens of things I'm paying for:
In-Vitro Fertilization - accounts for 3-5% of my premium
Morbid Obesity Treatment - accounts for 1-3% of my premium
Smoking Cessation - accounts for 1-3% of my premium
Well Child Care - accounts for 1-3% of my premium
Alcoholism/Substance Abuse - accounts for 1-3% of my premium
Hair Prosthesis - accounts for 1% of my premium
I'm not morbidly obese, I don't smoke, I don't have kids (nor am I looking to get pregnant any time soon, sorry mom!), and I'm pretty sure I don't need rehab.
If I tally it up, these items are responsible for up to 18% of my premium. That's almost $100/month I'm paying for coverage I absolutely do not want or need.
I also learned that there are nearly 2,133 mandates like these, which are responsible for group health insurance premium increases of 20 to 50 percent.
So... maybe there's a good reason for these mandates?
Nope!
J.P. Wieske, director of state affairs for the Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI), says "For state legislators, [mandates are] used as a special interest tool to reward lobbyists with a specific mandate and let someone else pay for it"
So, I have a question for Congress and President Obama: Can any of you tell me why this isn't being discussed as part of your health care reform plan?
It seems pretty logical to me: Don't make people pay for coverage they don't need, then when premiums are significantly lower, won't millions more Americans be able to afford healthcare?
FIND OUT YOUR STATE'S HEALTH INSURANCE MANDATES, thanks to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance.
Here's a more in-depth explanation of mandated benefits.
The most common state mandates:
Alcoholism/substance abuse treatment
Breast reconstruction
Diabetic supplies
Emergency services
Mammography
Maternity minimum stay
Mental health parity
Source: Council for Affordable Health Insurance
Unusual mandates:
Athletic trainer
Circumcision
Hair prosthesis
Midwife
Naturopath
Oriental medicine
Pastoral counseling
Port wine stain elimination (birthmark removal)
Residential crisis service
Source: Council for Affordable Health Insurance
TAKE ACTION!
Let Congress know what you think:
Downsize DC's Affordable Health Insurance Campaign Tool








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Health Insurance is necessary
Health Insurance is necessary for our life, you will find how important it is when you need it.
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I'm just a little upset about
I'm just a little upset about states mandating sex change operations and botox. I mean come on these types of elective procedures should never be mandated. I shudder to think what will be forced on the tax payers if national (obama) health care passes. I'm going to try and write product reviews informing people of the dangers.
Excessive mandates and
Excessive mandates and excessive premiums that are unnecessary are not ideal for those people that are levied with them.
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Health insurance comes with
Health insurance comes with huge variety of mandates depending on what fits your life style one can choose. You can find health insurance quotes and useful health tips, everything is at our disposal just a click away.
Each state controls who can
Each state controls who can propose health insurance to the populace of their state. Every state also tells the insurance supplier what must be covered in policy sold in that state.std test london
An effective healthcare
An effective healthcare delivery system that's affordable to everyone simply makes good economic sense. Healcare for everyone WILL COST LESS than our current system. It's always cheaper to paint your house than it is to replace rotted wood. Uninsured and under-insured people, when they get sick, cost all of us a lot of money.
My 2cents,
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Have you ever tried to opt
Have you ever tried to opt out of FICA? How is Medicare and Social Security not a mandate? If anything it's a far more egregious mandate than the one being imposed because not only do they tell you you have to pay into the program - they also provide a much more limited suite of options for you when you finally start collecting benefits (only one option in the case of Social Security).
I say this as an opponent of health insurance mandates - I don't think they're a good idea, and I never have. But I see nothing wrong with muirgeo's example.
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One easily available survey
One easily available survey of the costs of state benefit mandates had difficulty reconciling the fact the actual claims dollars paid for the benefits were significantly lower than the premium dollars attributed to them - according to date provided by insurers. Put in the simplest possible way using an example: insurance paid $1000 in claims but attributed $2500 in premium costs to those claims. More accurate insurers could arrive at no solid conclusions but estimated perhaps 6% of premium dollars. Because many mandates are common among states and offered by plans not even subject to state benefit requirements, the true savings gained by eliminating them is much less than advertised. cheap logo design
In any business
In any business Administrative Functions are OVERHEAD. Why then would you want a purely overhead function to be raking in huge profits. They don't make anything, they don't heal you when you are sick....in pure business terms they are not a Profit Center....like I said they are OVERHEAD. Buy laptop
Wee these mandates are indeed
Wee these mandates are indeed a necessity in my opinion. It is a call to action on some of the important aspects that needs to be tackled and resolved for the benefit of the community.
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State mandates on health
State mandates on health insurance are a major factor in the high cost of coverage. With all the talk about health care reform, it’s no wonder the subject of state health insurance mandates continues to be at the center of debate.
An alternative view is that
An alternative view is that Blair gets shoe-horned into the EU job just as a new G4 (US, China, Japan and the Eurozone) replaces the G8 as the world's foremost economic club, thereby marginalising Brown and his likely successor Cameron - or more likely, just marginalising Cameron (which can be blamed on his Eurosceptic stance). Indeed, this could even take place ahead of a general election, in which case Prime Minister Mandelson could argue he needs to remain at the helm because he is 'in' with both Blair and the EU hierarchy.
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It is a call to action on
It is a call to action on some of the important aspects that needs to be tackled and resolved for the benefit of the community.
Should we tax the wealthy in
Should we tax the wealthy in an attempt to pay for health care? Answer @ http://whimsis.com/?d5kjf62k
I have been participating
I have been participating with blogs for a while now. Blogs are the same they share new information and they find new users every single day.Its given me new field to wonder around. thanks everybody for this great post.I love the concept and enjoy hearing and reply to comments. Dentist Cambridge|Dentists
How odd that Arizona doesn't
How odd that Arizona doesn't mandate coverage for the listed items yet their single premium rates are only 3.5% less than Maryland. Do some more research and you'll discover there is no date to support the conclusion reached that 18% could be saved or that high benefit mandate states always have higher premium rates. If you look up the lists of state mandates used to arrive at the 2133 total and then add up the maximum estimated costs they represent, you'll discover they add up to more than 68% of Maryland premium costs. So apparently every other healthcare benefit including office visits, hospital stays, surgery, anesthesia, clinical tests, MRIs plus insurance company profits, administration costs etc. account for only 32% of premium costs. An entertaining but inaccurate approach to assessing the impacts of mandates.
One easily available survey of the costs of state benefit mandates had difficulty reconciling the fact the actual claims dollars paid for the benefits were significantly lower than the premium dollars attributed to them - according to date provided by insurers. Put in the simplest possible way using an example: insurance paid $1000 in claims but attributed $2500 in premium costs to those claims. More accurate insurers could arrive at no solid conclusions but estimated perhaps 6% of premium dollars. Because many mandates are common among states and offered by plans not even subject to state benefit requirements, the true savings gained by eliminating them is much less than advertised.
There's little doubt narrowed risk pools with bare bones policies for those least likely to require a particular service might reduce premiums for those groups. There's also little doubt they will increase premiums for others. Dropping preventative mandates (well-child, immunizations, cancer screening tests) might reduce short term costs as people choose not to pay out of pocket. It will also increase long term costs associated with late detection and treating diseases that could have been prevented. You might prefer not to pay for well-child care in your premium costs. You'll still pay for it in ill-child emergency treatment if premiums become unaffordable for the parent group. At some point, it's possible coverage now mandated could be moved entirely into state-funded pools created to cover "high risk" groups. Like women of childbearing age - maternity and contraceptive mandates supposedly each make up 3% of premium costs. The fact that men are generally involved in the act of conceiving a child is no reason they should be expected to share in the premium costs of preventing conception or having a child.
A final word: data also shows states with fewer mandated benefits do not universally have lower rates of uninsured. The number of uninsured is impacted by many factors. That's why Minnesota, highest number of mandates, has a lower rate of uninsured than many other states.
State mandates help people. I
State mandates help people. I worked in the legislative dept for a major insurer. If companies do not want to abide by state mandates,
all they have to do is self insure, or what is known as an administrative services contract. Then they only have to abide by federal mandates. You should do more research on state mandates, if you or a family member were inflicted by a disease that your state mandartes coverage, you would realize you are lucky that there are state mandates. For example, some states mandate coverage for pervasive development disorder, if you had a child with that, you would be counting your blessing there were such mandates. You should educate yourself, before you make blind unsubstantiated statements.
As a man, I don't want or
As a man, I don't want or need:
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- Breast reduction
- HPV screening
- HPV vaccine
- Mammography
- Mastectomy
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The abuses of insurers are
The abuses of insurers are actually protected by law. As long as they comply with the 1973 HMO act, ERISA, and individual state insurance laws, it is prohibitively difficult to sue them when they violate their contracts. You have to go through administrative procedures with the State or Federal agencies, and they are typical government bureaucrats looking for an excuse NOT to do their jobs.
In the meantime, consumers and physicians can NOT by law (antitrust law) band together to negotiate premiums down or reimbursements up. I am a chiropractic physician, and every year for the past ten years insurers LOWER my reimbursement for the same services while RAISING premiums. This year, my reimbursement for a simple adjustment was reduced to the same dollar amount I received for it in 1992. Needless to say, my rent, staff salaries, utilities, licensure fees, malpractice insurance, etc., etc, are about double what they were in 1992. I am friends with many MDs and they say the same...many of them are leaving the profession for this reason. Did we go to eight years of college and residencies to work 60-hour weeks to be unable to send our kids to college?
In 1992 I could offer an uninsured widow-mom-Alzheimers caregiver a 90% discount without a moment's hesitation. In 2009, she gets shown the door with regret, because Blue Cross Blue Shield has used up all the discounting I can afford, while they post record profits. Yes, year over year, health insurance's profit margins have been INCREASING while they bitch about how expensive it is to pay benefits!
I worked in the insurance
I worked in the insurance industry for 14 years. What we need to mandate is that the insurance companies pay the claims they write policies for instead of litigating unnecessarily, and stop skimming all the premium money off the top for their execs, shareholders, etc. There should be no profit of that nature in this business.
This is exactly where I
This is exactly where I believe that any "reform" should begin. Insurance companies should be fined heavily for denying legitimate claims and forcing litigation... or even taking months if not YEARS to pay for claims. My own insurance carrier denies almost every claim. Both my caregiver and I spend countless hours trying to extract a measly payments from them. That's where reform should start.
I agree that voicing dissent
I agree that voicing dissent is imperative. If need be, by disobeying political permissions (aka law). Down with collectivism and being our brothers keeper by force. How many times will civilization keep failing and rebuilding before human beings understand that collectivism/socialism cannot work?
Listen, not all mandates are
Listen, not all mandates are bad.
So I see several items on here that are mandates because the insurance companies do whatever they can in order to minimize expense and maximize profit. What I mean is, the reason that there are minimum stays for people who are pregnant or had major surgery, is because the insurance companies ousted these poor folks from the hospital when they truly needed more time in the hospital. I agree that some of the items in these lists can and probably should be removed from most people's insurance plans because they are not often required.
I'm all for the free market and competition but we all know that corporations do not have a conscience and absolutely will lie cheat and steal to get the advantage on a competitor. We have been shown this over and over again. Many mandates are vital to ensure that corporate greed doesn't impact the type of care a patient receives.
My ex was is a nurse and the stories I used to hear about some of these items and how insurance companies treated patients is heart wrenching. I'm not sticking up for the special interests that got these mandates passed but I can say that "some" of them are required. Also, how can you be sure that you won't need some of these services. Insurance protects against the unknown.
well for the "unknown" to be
well for the "unknown" to be covered maybe they could leave that out until you need it and charge you the difference...I don't smoke and will never smoke soooo I don't need to be covered for smoking
"the insurance companies
"the insurance companies ousted these poor folks from the hospital when they truly needed more time in the hospital"
"corporations do not have a conscience and absolutely will lie cheat and steal"
Did the insurer promise to pay for 5 days an then pay for only 3? Why is it lying or cheating to expect that someone will keep the terms of a contract to which they voluntarily agreed? Isn't it cheating to agree to pay for three days of hospital coverage and then demand 5 days after you get admitted? Isn't it greedy to have the government force others to pay for those two additional days? I think Brett has a very warped sense of right and wrong.
Ok lets give examples of
Ok lets give examples of lying cheating and stealing from corporations that have nothing to do with contracts. You are the one warping my words. The two are not related. the corp.s dont need to have a contract to lie cheat and steal silly. Jeeze I feel like I'm on Fox news where they take two unrelated snippets and jam them together and try to call you on something you didn't say.
"the insurance companies ousted these poor folks from the hospital when they truly needed more time in the hospital"
Example: Your doctor says you need to stay 5 days. The insurance companies doctor says " no you don't you get 3 max". The insurance company will not pay and therefore you must leave. This is purely a money play since the insurance company has an interest in getting you out of the hospital as quickly as possible. It has nothing to do with a contract nor does it have anything to do with warped sense of anything. The insurance company doesn't care about you, has no relationship to you and only cares about the bottom line. Which if they are a publicly traded company is mandated by law to turn a profit. Or do everything possible to do so.
"corporations do not have a conscience and absolutely will lie cheat and steal"
Do I even need to highlight the two most recent multi-billion dollar ponzi schemes? ENRON anyone? The corporations that ship computer waste to China to be dumped out in the open or in rivers? OR the countless other acts by corporations over the past 5-10 years?
How about your food supply? GMO food in the name of profit? High fructose corn syrup instead of natural sweetners? Aspartame as a sweetener? How about the corporation that is creating the H1N1 vaccine with a patent that has been filed at the patent office purposely infecting Green monkeys in Africa and "harvesting" flesh after allowing the monkey to suffer? http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5911998/claims.html http://www.naturalnews.com/026779_swine_flu_patents_vaccines.html
How many more examples of corporate greed and unconscionable acts do you need? I can certainly keep going as the list is pretty long.
Do your homework before calling someone names eh?
Unrelated snippets? You've
Unrelated snippets? You've taken a discussion on health insurance and twisted it around Enron, the food supply, and green monkeys in Africa.
My comment was related to two points that you made in your first post. Your first point was that insurance companies force people out of the hospital early- implying that the the company was somehow being greedy, had lied or cheated, which was related to your comments about corportation in your second point.
My response was simply to point out that if there is an agreed upon coverage in the policy and the insurance company pays for what it agreed to pay for, then it has done nothing wrong if it does not agree to pay for a longer hospital stay. Additionally, the insurance company does not force anyone out of a hospital. It simple pays whatever it has agreed to pay per the policy. A patient can arrange other forms of payment if he and/or his doctor decides he needs a longer stay. He can pay out of his pocket; the hospital and doctors can absorb the costs, etc. Why isn't the hospital greedy for making the patient leave when his insurancse runs out? Don't the hospital and the doctors have their own financial incentives for having a patient stay longer than necessary? And why isn't the patient greedy for demanding more insurance coverage than he paid for? I repeat that you have warped sense of responsibility and right and wrong. It is based on a view of society as being made up of victims (choose your prefered group- sick people) and vicitmizers (greedy insurance companies) rather than the facts of a given situation. For you, someone's need equals someone else's responsibility- usually whomever you decide can afford to pay.
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