Rather than losing out in government sponsored plans, two leading insurance lobbies announced that they would consider ending high premiums for many patients with significant chronic diagnoses. In a letter to two prominent senators in the healthcare reform & policy sector, the Blues and America’s Health Insurance Plans made their “offer”:

Tuesday, Karen Ignagni, who heads America’s Health Insurance Plans, said insurers want to help reverse [high premiums/costs]. “The private sector can rise to the challenge of solving these problems,” she said.

Ignagni and Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn. President Scott P. Serota made the offer in a letter to senior senators. But it came with a catch: The insurers said all Americans must first buy health insurance to boost the size of the risk pool, a concept opposed by many consumer groups.

“By enacting an effective, enforceable requirement that all Americans assume responsibility to obtain and maintain health insurance, we believe we could guarantee issue coverage with no pre-existing condition exclusions and phase out the practice of varying premiums based on health status in the individual market,” they wrote.

With the insurance companies, there has to be incentive for participation in any plan involving the spectre of government intrusion. It’s called maintaining “skin in the game”. | LINK

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