OPINIONLook to tax credits to fight skyrocketing health insurance premiumsThe cost of employer-based health insurance is putting a crimp on people's budgets and adding to the ranks of the uninsured. The AMA has a plan to solve these problems.Editorial. Oct. 6, 2003. There is great agreement among those in health care that the private-sector health insurance system, as it now stands, is untenable. One reason for the pessimism is the sheer cost of insurance. According to an AMA Health Care Financial Trends report released over the summer, employer-based health plan premiums went up 43% just between 1998 and 2002. The Kaiser Family Foundation says premiums increased 13.9% between mid-2002 and mid-2003, the highest increase since 1990. No one is predicting such increases will abate anytime soon. What has gone wrong? The AMA's report, put together by its Health Policy Group, maps out the reasons. Consumer demand for care, improvements in medical technology and a short-term decline in insurers' profitability all play a part. But so does health plans' control of their local markets. As the AMA stated in an earlier report, most cities and states have a few large plans that make up the majority of the market. That's reflected, too, in the fact that 92% of businesses, representing one-third of American workers, offering health benefits give their employees only one plan to choose from. Health plan market dominance is so great that even in cases where more than one option was available, the multiple options were only variations within one plan, according to the latest AMA report. The result is that there is not enough competition in the marketplace to compel plans to find ways to reduce their premiums. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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The doctors are in the house
The AMA's House of Delegates is holding its Interim Meeting Nov. 7-10 in Houston, addressing issues such as health system reform and physician payment. Meeting coverage - Slideshow Feature articlesHealth reform review The Massachusetts experience Litigation stress Being sued is personal as well as professional Comprehensive coverage
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