Insurers Show Flexibility on Pre-Existing Conditions
March 31st, 2009 by Jeb Foster
For so long the arguments never changed in the health care debate. Each constituency—insurers, doctors, political parties—had its position, and you could count on its immutability.
So it was strange and somewhat disorienting (in a good way) when, last week, the health insurance industry told Congress that they were open to the idea of abandoning their policy of rejecting people with preexisting conditions—but only if the federal government instituted a universal mandate to buy insurance.
A subsequent article in the Times described the pleasant surprise of many Democratic congressmen, who have been clamoring for just such an scenario for years.
“It was a significant step for them to take,” said Rep. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) in an interview with the Times. “That’s certainly not been their position in previous years. I hope it moves us closer to something that we could label a consensus.”
Rewind to 10 years ago: it was unthinkable then to consider the idea of a universal mandate becoming a consensus. If you predicted such a thing a decade ago, you would’ve gotten derisive snorts.
But times have changed, and despite a long history of health-care-reform failure, it seems the stars are aligning in favor of change. So what has changed?
The way I see it, we Americans are increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of leaving our sick people to face crushing medical costs and bankruptcy. We’re putting more pressure on our elected officials to remedy the situation. Insurers, seeing the writing on the wall, know that a universal mandate may be the only way to soften the blow of impending government regulation.
Tags: health care reform
