While Idaho conservatives ramp up the invective and state lawyers prepare to join in a lawsuit to stop the health care reform act just passed by Congress, businesses and families are facing health insurance costs that are spiraling out of control.
Despite the deepest financial mess since the Great Depression and despite the fact that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the annual increase in the cost of medical care at 3.7 percent, businesses and individuals are facing health insurance rate increases that range from 10 percent to 20 percent this year alone. Worse, insurance companies say there is no end in sight.
State insurance regulators—the ones with whom increases must pass muster--seem not to have noticed that businesses in Idaho and nationwide have been hemorrhaging red ink by the gallon.
It apparently hasn't registered with regulators or insurance companies that the companies and individuals paying premiums are still enduring layoffs and job and wage cuts. It hasn't registered that most corporate profits haven't returned to healthy levels.
Does anyone care?
It seems to matter not a whit that government bailouts were paid with taxes from the very Americans now struggling to pay for health insurance.
While Idaho's politicians dither and debate the advisability and costs of reform, and praise the virtues of the free market for health care, insurance costs are outstripping the real cost of providing medical care.
Why aren't state and federal leaders railing against that?
At least California leaders questioned Anthem Blue Cross when it proposed a 39 percent rate increase. Idaho's leaders just accept big annual increases without a word.
Idaho companies and families could soon find themselves forced to buy only the barest catastrophic health coverage. Forget coverage for preventive or alternative care, coverage for drugs, vision and dental. Or, business owners may end company plans altogether, leaving employees to fend for themselves and to pay for any coverage with post-tax dollars instead of the pre-tax dollars allowed for corporate health plans. That could leave many families to choose between paying the rent or paying for insurance.
Insurance experts say young Americans have already faced the latter choice and large numbers have opted to go without health insurance. This is driving up costs even more for the older and sicker people who remain in health plans.
Idaho's conservative majority is railing against Obamacare. If conservatives have a better idea, they should do something concrete to stop out-of-control health insurance costs and deliver affordable coverage to the people of Idaho.
