So I took last week off to be with my family, get away for
some rest and relaxation and refill the tank a bit. It seemed to help, and I think that perhaps
my time away gave me a perspective that I was starting to lose with regard to
what is happening in health insurance these days. Therefore, I am going to try to bring some
perspective to what we have heard in the news and on talk radio for hours on
end. The Health Care Exchanges have gotten off to a rough start…
Let me say that those of us who actually make a living
selling health insurance have seen this coming since the inception of this
law. Good, bad or indifferent, the regulatory
decisions that have been made for the past two years have made this inevitable. I am not saying that I told you so, but…many
have in fact told anyone who would listen that this was going to happen. Now that I have that off my chest, let’s move
on.
I, like many of you who read this blog, live in
Kentucky. We have Kynect as our state
health insurance exchange. It has
performed rather well I must admit. Our
governor was even on national news exclaiming what a bang up job our state has
done with its exchange. Well done
Governor, we do have a model that is workable, but what have we gained? Reports that I have been reading have
indicated that nearly 85% of the enrolled individuals through Kynect have gone
to Medicaid. My guess, and this is just
a guess, is that the other 15% of those enrolling were previously enrolled in
Kentucky Access (high risk pool) because their coverage will be terminating on
January 1, 2014. They have no other
choice but to enroll in this plan. But
keep in mind, these people were already doing the right thing by being covered
in the first place!!!
My point is that nearly 100% of the enrollment in Kynect is
comprised of people who qualified for Medicaid (and we should have been caring
for all along) or people who could afford insurance in the high risk pool, and
made health insurance a priority by actually purchasing a policy. No where in this scenario do we find a mid
income person who was previously uninsured suddenly finding that the premiums
in the Kynect exchange have compelled them to purchase a policy. Thus, those folks who make too much to have
Medicaid assistance, but too little to feel compelled to spend discretionary dollars
on insurance will remain uninsured. I
think that this will be the case across the nation.
The federal exchange web site may be unreliable, but people’s
behavior is predictable. If something
takes too long, costs too much, looks too cumbersome, feels too clunky, they
just aren’t going to buy it. While I do
think that reform may have been needed for “health care” in general, I still
feel that trying to fix one leg of a wobbly three legged stool still leaves you
with a wobbly stool. If our leaders don’t
understand that premiums increase because the cost of the underlying services
increase annually, your premise is flawed from the beginning.
So we are left with many unintended consequences that will
be contrary to the intent of the act.
Blame will be flung far and wide.
Congress will have hearings, the spin will be incredible, the truth indistinguishable,
the outrage indescribable and yet the costs will continue to rise, still uncontrollable.
Peace
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