More thoughts on health insurance
As currently drafted, the individual mandate's rules create a strong incentive for individuals to choose to pay a fine rather than to buy health insurance.
The fine is much lower than the cost of health insurance. And health insurance can be bought after a person gets sick or hurt, on a guaranteed basis, for the same price as if it were purchased while the buyer is healthy. Congress must fix this problem, or the health care payment system will get much worse. Congress must put risk back into the health insurance buying decision. People must believe they need the insurance before they get sick or hurt.
I understand that affordability concerns argue in favor of keeping fines low. So Congress should consider additional ways to make the individual mandate effective. Among the possibilities would be a rule that would allow for a waiting period before guarantee issue rules kicking in, only for people who had access to affordable health insurance but chose not to purchase it.
Support employer-sponsored insurance; I support health reform that refrains from taxing Americans on the value of the insurance they receive from their employers. I encourage you to support a bill that does not cap contributions to flexible spending arrangements, or if a cap is unavoidable, to index that cap. Reject a government-run plan - creating a new government plan would exacerbate cost shifting from government programs to private plans and threaten the ability of employers to continue to pay for coverage.
Medical malpractice reform should be addressed. CBO found that medical malpractice reform that includes caps on damages could achieve some $41 billion in health care savings.
Most Americans need and want expert advice when choosing their health insurance. Thus, I applaud Congressional leadership's current support for explicitly authorizing a role for licensed agents.
Jude Mertes
Naperville