Health insurers introduce plans with “predictable premiums.”
American Medical Association
Morning Rounds
October 9, 2007
The Wall Street Journal (10/9, D3, McQueen) reports, “Guardian Life and Humana Inc. are introducing multiyear plans designed to make health-insurance premiums more predictable from year to year for smaller employers.” However, “workers could face sharply higher deductibles and co-payments for prescriptions and office visits if medical costs rise more than expected.” Guardian Life will make available its “Premium Protect” plan “in the next week or two in five states and the District of Columbia for employers with 51 to 150 employees.” Meanwhile, Humana already introduced its plan, called “No Worry,” in February. “The Humana plans require employers [of 51 to 99 staff] to hand over a large percentage of workers’ phone and email contact information to get annual premium rises of no more than 6%.” The Journal notes, “Guardian achieves its rate-increase lock-in by charging employers an upfront fee of 3% to 4% in return for a guaranteed increase of 0%, 6% or 9% in the second year of a two-year plan.” In contrast, Humana “guarantees annual rate increases won’t exceed 6%.” However, “employers who terminate the contract before the end of the three-year period face a $25,000 penalty.”
http://www.ama-assn.org/
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
No worry. Employers can now lock in their premium rates by merely agreeing in advance to pass on health care cost increases to their employees through yet higher deductibles and co-payments.
And you were beginning to think that the private insurance industry was incapable of adressing the problem of escalating health costs.
There is a problem though. If employers really do care about the welfare of their employees, they will need to provide bankruptcy counselors for those whose families actually need medical care.