Health Care Cost and Access: Hearing Before the Committee on the Budget, House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, First Session, June 19, 1991U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991 - 232 pages |
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administrative affordable AFL-CIO Americans basic health services believe benefits bill billion Blue Cross Blue Shield budget CHAIRMAN Committee Congress consumers copayments cost of health coverage for basic covered Cross and Blue DANNEMEYER deductibles defensive medicine doctors economizing elderly eligible employees enroll Federal Government fee-for-service plan financing going Hawaii health care costs health care services health care system health insurance plan HMOs home care hospital implementation incentives income increase individual insurance companies issue long-term care insurance malpractice managed care mandates Medicaid Medicaid program medical malpractice Medicare MediPlan NFIB nursing home option Oregon out-of-pocket costs package patients payment Pepper Commission percent physician poverty level premium Prepaid Health private insurance problem proposal provide health insurance public health insurance public plan public program purchase rates Senator MITCHELL small business owners small employers small firms SPRATT SYBINSKY Thank tort reform uninsured WAXMAN
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Page 208 - It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
Page 92 - Association is the coordinating organization for the 73 Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans throughout the nation. Collectively, the Plans provide health benefits protection for more than 80 million Americans.
Page 90 - Board (FASB) that go into effect in 1993 would require companies— for the first time — to list on their Balance Sheets estimates of liabilities for providing health care benefits to current and future retirees. The new regulations have caused a number of employers to cut back coverage for future retirees or eliminate protection altogether. Such actions have already seriously increased the number of retirees without coverage and the problem is growing. We believe that the most effective way of...
Page 88 - Even those who seek to preserve the current system can no longer defend the excessive overhead and administrative costs associated with our fragmented system. In pursuing a "competitive" health care market, the US has ended up with a system that operates on the principle of Social Darwinism. It punishes employers who provide health insurance to their workers by forcing them to, in effect, subsidize the health care of those who are employed by firms that seek a competitive advantage by refusing to...
Page 101 - Insurers with more liberal enrollment practices and resulting higher premiums will lose their low-risk enrollees — who can find better priced coverage elsewhere — and keep their higher-risk enrollees, who have nowhere else to go. These carriers thus are left with risk pools that gradually deteriorate over time.
Page 130 - Buyers end up spending scarce resources on benefits that they may not want or use, or reducing coverage for more essential health services in order to accommodate the extra costs associated with mandates. S. 768 with its "well baby" and "mental health" provisions is headed down this costly path.
Page 203 - Hawaii enjoys high-tech tertiary care programs as advanced as any state or nation. The key to our success is our state's longstanding commitment to ensuring that basic health care is available to all our people - our system offers access to coverage to all and in fact has covered about 98% of our people.
Page 69 - MediPlan's basic benefits would be similar to those currently provided to the elderly by Medicare. In addition, MediPlan would cover all children and all pregnant women without payment of a premium and without copayments or deductibles. Benefits would include needed pre-natal, labor and delivery, and preventive well-child care, including immunizations. MediPlan would also provide additional, essential benefits, such as prescription drug coverage, for low-income Americans, who would also not pay premiums,...
Page 103 - Market Of all the health insurance markets, the individual market has the most severe problem of adverse selection. In this market, individuals make choices about whether they need coverage and which type of coverage to buy based on their perceived need for medical care. Thus, individuals who have a known or anticipated need for medical care tend to choose the most comprehensive coverage available, while healthy individuals either choose lower-cost coverage or no coverage at all. And in contrast...
Page 182 - Income to some of the poor and fixed income aged who have no federal tax liability through existing programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Supplemental Security Income.