Insurers Want Eligible Amercians To Sign Up For Health Benefits

By Justine Rellosa
Talk Radio News Service

President and Chief Executive Officer of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Karen Ignagni said Monday that qualified Americans should participate in Enroll America.

Enroll America is a non-profit organization which is encouraging anyone who is eligible for government insurance subsidies or Medicaid to become enrolled.

"We have about ten million people now who are eligible for public programs who are not enrolled," said Ignagni. "It is important for people to understand how they can get covered now."

Ignagni commented on the lack of communication between patients and their medical caretakers. She said health care literacy can create a divide between the patient and the practitioner, adding that the goal of Enroll America is to educate citizens about health care options available to them.

"We're excited to be contributing to the ability for individuals to understand more of what is being communicated and to work with physicians and other healthcare practitioners to bring that about," she said.

Ignagni also focused on the importance of creating uniformity in the medical sphere and encouraged payment reforms.

"More can be done to align what's going on in private sectors as well as the public sector to promote payment reform that allows doctors in hospitals...to practice medicine. We can create uniformity...and yes, we can protect practitioners from malpractice concerns," said Ignagni.

Sebelius And Insurance Industry Head Clash Over Health Care Reform

By Chingyu Wang-Talk Radio News Service

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) CEO Karen Ignagni offered back to back remarks Wednesday that highlighted the vast differences between how the Obama administration and the insurance industry are viewing the current attempt to reform the U.S. health care system.

Sebelius, who appeared at AHIP's annual conference, suggested that funds used by AHIP for attack ads could be better spent on lowering coverage costs.

"I am hopeful that you can take the assets that you have and the influence ... and use it to start calling for comprehensive reform to pass," said Sebelius. "Instead of spending energy attacking the parts of the proposal that you don't like, come to the table."

Ignagni held a press conference immediately after and took the opportunity to raise concerns that AHIP continues to have with the legislation proposed by Democrats.

"We are committed to bringing everyone into the [health care] system," said Ignagni. "The problem that we have with the current legislation is that we are very concerned that it will make health care more expensive, not more affordable."

Added the CEO, "We have offered very specific proposals [to ensure affordability,]" said Ignagni. "We believe that the legislation needs to be fixed in that area; that it still can be fixed."

Sebelius argued that attacking the Democrat's proposal is a "short-term strategy."

"You can continue the opposition to reform and if you do, and reform fails, I can give you a pretty good prediction of what happens next," Sebelius said. "By next March, premiums will take even a bigger bite out of American's wages, your market will shrink even further [and] more Americans will lose their employer-sponsored insurance."

Health Insurance Lobby Worried About Direct Costs Of Reform

by Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico

Officials from various health care groups agreed on Monday that controlling costs and tackling health coverage for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions is going to require the masses. The issues were debated at a forum hosted by House Health Care Caucus Chairman U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who said that the the goal of the discussion was to figure out “how to affect [healthcare reform] without interfering with people’s freedoms and their rights in the process.”

President and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans Karen Ignagni started off by saying that “we as a community support reform.” Ignagni, whose organization represents over 1,300 companies that sell health insurance, added that her industry would like to guarantee coverage to all Americans, would like to end pre-existing condition limitations and exclusions, end gender differentiation, and no longer require health status ratings.

However, she argued that without both young and elderly Americans in the insurance pool, reform will make the system worse, citing unsuccessful examples of state mandated insurance as the basis for AHIP’s conclusion. She suggested that in addition to looking at mandated insurance, Congress should also address budget and fairness questions within reform.

“To what extent should people, who have no choice but to be in the pool, subsidize folks that decide to wait until they absolutely need coverage to get in?” asked Ignagni. “That’s a societal question, it’s a fairness question… and it’s a very important question… [and] the third issue is the budgetary imperative.”

Former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin also raised fiscal questions about the Senate and House bills, saying neither will bend the health care cost curve.

“The entitlement that’s set up in the House program grows at 8 percent a year as far as the eye can see… faster than this economy will grow, faster than tax revenues will grow and thus is a fiscal risk in addition to not being a step forward in health care reform,” Holtz-Eakin said. “Oddly enough, the Senate bill, that was delivered by the Senate Finance Committee, also has an entitlement that grows at 8 percent per year…and thus fail[s] the fundamental test of lowering the growth rate of health care costs.”

Holtz-Eakin said that the health insurance industry could achieve a better business model if it adopted intervention practices such as prevention and early disease detection, which he said “would pay off over a life cycle.” He added that a business model that does so would reward quality.

On the issue of costs, Janet Trautwein, CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters, was less open to removing pre-existing conditions without a more diverse pool of insured people.

“People with those pre-existing conditions use more health care…if we have only sick people in the pool, then we have defeated our purpose of affordability. And that is why we have a problem with the way in which pre-existing conditions may be removed from policies today.”