Health Insurance Articles
Health Insurance Premiums Continue To Rise For Many Mass Residents
2009-10-22
The healthcare debate in Washington will likely remain in the headlines for months, as it's potentially the most important piece of legislation that the Obama Administration has attempted to pass. In Massachusetts, though, the healthcare debate is receiving attention on the state level as well. Lawmakers in the state are rushing to address inflating health insurance premiums that are having a profound effect on many middle-class Massachusetts families. This has brought the nation's politicians on both sides of the aisle to look at the state's health insurance policies for ideas about what works for government-controlled healthcare, and what fails.
Massachusetts passed sweeping health insurance reform in 2006, and now boasts a 96 percent rate of insured citizens. Many of the current health bill's changes were enacted in the state to allow nearly every person to have a decent health insurance policy. However, these same changes have led to higher health insurance premiums for many residents who are outraged at their skyrocketing rates. Massachusetts' politicians are doing their best to deal with the problem, establishing a special state commission to look into why the rates are raising at such a high speed. They hope to keep a high rate of insured citizens while finding a quick and effective solution to the issue.
Part of the problem may be the tumultuous economy, which affects insurance across the country. Some point out that the raising rates may have other factors that aren't associated with Massachusetts healthcare reform. Many politicians and residents believe that the 2006 reforms did too much to change the way health insurance works without dealing with the way that the actual health industry operates. Due to a lack of tort reform and other controls, they say, hospitals are charging more and more, which leads to higher premiums from insurance companies. Containment of the health costs, they say, should have been more strictly managed in the original legislation. Both Democrats and Republicans in the state hope that successive bills and the new state commission will offer both answers and solutions to help employers and consumers pay for health insurance.
There are certainly good elements to the 2006 Massachusetts healthcare reform, but higher health insurance premiums couldn't have come at a worse time. Many consumers are struggling to make ends meet, and don't qualify for government-subsidized healthcare. In Washington, senators and representatives are closely scrutinizing the Massachusetts legislation to look for ways to make improvements as the national health reform bill gets closer to passing. For now, those who see rising insurance costs don't have much of an option other than to wait to see how new legislation affects their coverage and the rates that they're charged.
