Proponents of last year's Medicare overhaul trumpeted the bill's
promise to let seniors choose from a variety of health coverage
options beginning in 2006. But what happens if the regulations
discourage insurance companies from playing ball?
That seems to be happening already. "A major obstacle to the
success of the new Medicare law has emerged in recent weeks,"
The New York Times reported Aug. 22. "Private insurers
have told the Bush administration that they will not expand their
role if they have to serve large multistate regions, as the White
House wants."
Insurer reluctance to cobble together regional health plans comes
as no surprise to Heritage Foundation health policy analysts. In a
Heritage lecture last October, health insurance expert Robert
Laszewski predicted this very problem would arise. "Most health
plans operate in only one state, or two or three states, and rarely
in every town and village in those areas," he noted long before the
complex Medicare bill became law last October.
Read more of Laszewski's lecture here: http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCare/HL801.cfm.
For more information or to receive an e-mail version of "Bitter
Pills," contact [email protected]
or call Heritage Media Services at (202) 675-1761.
"Bitter Pills" is an occasional, but regular, feature from The
Heritage Foundation on how the 2003 Medicare drug law is full of
sickening "surprises" that have serious consequences for seniors
and taxpayers. Of course, The Heritage Foundation isn't surprised
at all. We diagnosed the problems long ago in ourMedicare Maladies series.
Both Medicare Maladies and Bitter Pills are available on heritage.org (if you can stomach
them).
Report Health Care Reform
Bitter Pills #14: Will Medicare Discourage Coverage Options?
August 27, 2004 1 min read
The Heritage Foundation
Authors
The Heritage Foundation
More on This Issue
FACTSHEET 4 min read
BACKGROUNDER 35 min read
COMMENTARY 4 min read