Insurance – Health law’s big test: Taming premiums – In Today’s Sac Bee by Julie Appleby

In this morning’s Business Section of the Sacramento Bee, Julie Appleby outlined what she understands various States, and the Federal Government, is attempting to do to manage medical insurance premiums charged by insurance companies.

To most of us in the insurance community, and perhaps to the public, this is old news.  It seems that politicians, the media and the regulators only want to talk about how to prevent insurance companies from raising premiums “to high.”

The media, and particularly politicians keep hammering the insurance industry for the high cost of insurance, but they never enter into a dialogue about the actual causes of rising insurance premiums. 

Why can’t we all talk about some of the following?

·        Why are insurance premiums continuously increasing?

·        Why is health care so expensive?

·        What are the cost drivers in the medical care community?

·        What is the actual data to support the rising costs?

·        What needs to be done to control costs?

·        How do the profits of the medical insurance companies compare to other industries?

I feel the media and politicians continue to treat the public like we are, small children who must be sheltered from the “truth,” or they feel we are not intelligent enough to tell us the full story.  My sense is that they really do not know themselves the answers to these and other important questions.   They really have no clue and all their focus is on the next election and not helping their customers, the public.

I do not know about you all, but I am really tired of all the smoke screens and games playing that continues to mask the really issues of the high cost of medical insurance – lets get to the heart of the problems and come up with some solutions to fix a very expensive and complex system for the benefit of the patients and those who pay for the medical system.

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