Biden to Insurance Commissioners: “Soaring” Premium Costs Crushing Businesses, Families
EmailABC News’ Natalie Gewargis and Karen Travers report:
Vice President Joe Biden added his voice to the debate on health care reform today, telling the National Association of Insurance Commissioners that the increasing costs of insurance premiums is a key reason the system must be changed.
“Soaring premiums are not only hurting families, and killing small businesses, they’re hurting our competitive position all around the world,” stated Biden. “They're hurting our whole free enterprise system. They're hurting our ability to compete…of business competing internationally.”
Speaking at Maryland’s National Harbor, the vice president cited a new report released by the White House National Economic Council claiming that in the past decade, health insurance premiums in states have increased between 90-150%, with wages and inflation unable to keep pace.
According to the report based on data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, health insurance premiums in Alaska increased 145% while wages grew by only 35%. In Florida, premiums increased 121% while wages increased only 43%. The smallest gap between premiums and wages among states occurred in Michigan, where the gap between the figures is 37%.
“All around the country, all around the country we’re seeing these gaps widen,” said Biden. “And all and all there was a 5.5% rise in premiums for families just this past year during this great recession when inflation actually fell 7%.”
Today the vice president stressed the need for “basic ground rules” for all insurance companies to follow, including prohibiting insurance carriers from discriminating against policy holders with pre-existing conditions and banning annual or lifetime caps on coverage.
Insurance companies will also be prevented from discriminating on the basis of gender, and excessive out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays and cost-sharing for preventative care will be banned. Coverage for seriously ill policy holders will be maintained by carriers, as opposed to being dropped, a common practice within the industry.
Biden said these rules must be set and followed in order to “restore stability and security” to the health care system.
“These ground rules don’t pick and choose which companies they apply to—they apply to everyone. The playing field is level,” said the vice president. He assured audience members that competition amongst carriers will remain healthy as long as insurance carriers stick to the rules.
While companies would be unable to drop expensive patients, Biden claimed insurers would have more mostly healthy and young customers, and promised more competition in the marketplace, more paying customers, and more choices for patients.
With President Obama in New York for the United Nations’ General Assembly, Biden is doing the heavy lifting on health care. Tomorrow he will speak to seniors at a retirement community in Maryland, and is reaching out to his former colleagues in the Senate to listen to and address concerns about the administration’s health care plan.
–Natalie Gewargis and Karen Travers
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So why isn’t the Obama administration doing something about the rising cost of health care instead of mandating that everybody get comprehensive insurance that will only drive additional increases in costs?
Posted by: Bridget | September 22, 2009, 4:35 pm 4:35 pm
So is government bailouts. So is the size of government. So is government intervention into every aspect of our lives. Biden should work on shrinking government massively.
Posted by: Huh | September 22, 2009, 4:39 pm 4:39 pm
— Biden promised more competition in the marketplace, more paying customers, and more choices for patients. —
So this means ObamaCare will allow competition to provide health insurance across state lines?
Posted by: tjp612 | September 22, 2009, 4:41 pm 4:41 pm
Hey Biden, just exactly what do you think is driving those insurance premiums???? Oh yeah, health care costs! Only one drives the other.
Posted by: lfrichar | September 22, 2009, 4:42 pm 4:42 pm
He has a point. I recall that in 1993 my out of pocket expense for health ins was $73.00 a month, Yes, I was single. Now I pay $ 356.00 a month and I am single. Is the cost of health ins out of control? Yes it is. But, that does not mean we have to destroy the current system to fix one part of it.
Posted by: LEE | September 22, 2009, 4:46 pm 4:46 pm
Was this a news story or a sales pitch? It sounds like a sales pitch that’s been cleansed of all dissenting facts and voices.
Posted by: SjB | September 22, 2009, 4:48 pm 4:48 pm
“I recall that in 1993 my out of pocket expense for health ins was $73.00 a month, Yes, I was single. Now I pay $ 356.00 a month and I am single”
LEE, do you recall what a doctor visit cost in 1993 and do you know what one costs now?
Posted by: Bridget | September 22, 2009, 4:53 pm 4:53 pm
-LEE, do you recall what a doctor visit cost in 1993 and do you know what one costs now?-
Lee is paying for gov’t mandates in coverage. Not cheap.
Posted by: Lazybonz | September 22, 2009, 4:58 pm 4:58 pm
“Lee is paying for gov’t mandates in coverage. Not cheap” posted by Lazybonz
Yes, that too. LEE is paying for increasing health care costs, (not least of which is malpractice insurance) and government mandates.
Posted by: Bridget | September 22, 2009, 5:02 pm 5:02 pm
I’ve lived in Alaska all my life; NO WAY have premiums increased by 145% in the last year. Maybe 10% but that’s it.
KFF used some kind of random sampling and in a small and diverse state like this, a couple of outliers would dramatically change the result.
Posted by: JimAK | September 22, 2009, 5:13 pm 5:13 pm
We are fortunate that the Obama administration is pushing forward for the health of the majority of Americans.
I am proud of their commitment to the citizens of the U.S.
Posted by: gus amaral | September 22, 2009, 5:15 pm 5:15 pm
Who is buying this crap sandwich? It’s medical malpractice that is causing SOARING medical costs and would be relatively simple to eliminate…but then again we’re talking about a corrupt gang of thugs in the white house…and the ambulance chasing lawyers are on their payroll.
sigh.
WAKE UP AMERICA !!!
Posted by: mjishernameo | September 22, 2009, 6:36 pm 6:36 pm
‘Who is buying this crap sandwich? It’s medical malpractice that is causing SOARING medical costs and would be relatively simple to eliminate…but then again we’re talking about a corrupt gang of thugs in the white house”
__________________________________
A foolishly shallow analysis of the problems in health care. And of course the resort of insulting the President.
Yawn . . .
Posted by: tierra | September 22, 2009, 8:28 pm 8:28 pm
“We are fortunate that the Obama administration is pushing forward for the health of the majority of Americans.”
You’d be just as pleased if he told you everyone would get a free lunch every Wednesday forever.
The fact is, this man is pushing this incoherent madness in the face of the opposition of a clear majority of Americans. An even larger majority–over 75%–are happy with their health care just as it is. Whatever he is doing, he is certainly not doing anything on behalf of all those people. Quite the contrary.
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | September 22, 2009, 8:52 pm 8:52 pm
The O’Leary report and Zogby recently polled residents states and districts with likely competitive races in 2010. Their results should be very sobering for vulnerable Democrats.
“Less popular with 2010 voters is a key provision in Sen. Max Baucus’, D-Mont., recently unveiled health care bill that would require all Americans to purchase health insurance or face a hefty fine. A clear majority of voters in competitive Senate races (68 percent) oppose such a provision, as do 70 percent of voters in competitive House races.”
Posted by: Fructuoso | September 22, 2009, 9:34 pm 9:34 pm
Great speech, Mr. Biden. Thank you.
Posted by: Love Biden | September 22, 2009, 10:41 pm 10:41 pm
According to a Time poll, 89% of respondents were covered under some sort of health care plan, and of that group 86% were at least somewhat satisfied with their current plan.
That same Time poll also asked:
Overall, how would you rate the health care system in the United States?
11% Excellent
31% Good
33% Only Fair
22% Poor
How important is it to you that the Congress and the President pass a major health care reform bill in the next few months?
46% Very Important
23% Somewhat Important
10% Not Very Important
18% Not at All Important
Would it be better to pretty much stay with the current health care system and just make some minor adjustments, or does the system need major reform?
43% Minor Adjustments
55% Major Reform
Posted by: Numeros | September 22, 2009, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm
In Senate testimony, the Director of the CBO essentially tells Obama, “YOU LIE!”
—What happens when a mythbuster gets exposed as a mythmaker? Barack Obama has insisted that people who claim that $500 billion in “savings” from Medicare won’t mean any reduction in benefits. Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, SAYS THAT SIMPLY ISN’T TRUE. The cuts to Medicare Advantage, which comprise one-fifth of those savings, MEANS REDUCED BENEFITS FOR THE 25% OF SENIORS using the program (via Instapundit):
Congress’ CHIEF BUDGET OFFICER on Tuesday CONTRADICTED PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S OFT-STATED CLAIM that seniors wouldn’t see their Medicare benefits cut under a health care overhaul.
The head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, told senators that seniors in Medicare’s managed care plans COULD SEE REDUCED BENEFITS under a bill in the Finance Committee.
The bill would cut payments to the Medicare Advantage plans by more than $100 billion over 10 years.
Elmendorf said the changes “would reduce the extra benefits that would be made available to beneficiaries through Medicare Advantage plans.”—
Posted by: Obama Bin Lyin' | September 23, 2009, 9:02 am 9:02 am
As a small business owner who just picked up tax documents from my accountant, I will tell you that health insurance is hurting my business far less than the tremendous amount of taxation.
Posted by: LP | September 24, 2009, 12:52 pm 12:52 pm
Continuing to focus mainly on insurance is the BIG LIE. Insurance costs are driven by healthcare costs — charges at hospitals, charges for procedures, charges for drugs. Insurance doesn’t drive healthcare costs — just the opposite. Why isn’t Washington focused on real costs, and tort reform, instead of beating on the insurance companies (including the non-profits like my company is insured by)? “Reforming” insurance in the ways they are proposing will only raise costs and eventually kill off even the non-profit insurance companies — leaving us all with only the public alternative, which is probably the real goal anyway. Those of us who oppose what is going on are not “right-wing” nuts or extremists. We are realists who don’t like where Washington is taking us.
Posted by: Barbara | September 24, 2009, 1:31 pm 1:31 pm
Ugh, I just found out that my monthly insurance premium is jumping from $579 to $698/mo starting January, for two people. That is 20%. That is rediculous.. Seems to me that all the above mentioned issues MUST be addressed before real reform can take place. Yes, it is the insurance companies, AND the skyrocketing medical costs, AND the tort problems, AND the system in general. I mean, 40% of med costs are administrative?!? Come on….
Posted by: jen | December 16, 2009, 3:19 pm 3:19 pm