After nine months of back-and-forth public debate, huge corporate bailouts, and strained political ties among members of Congress, the impact of the new economy and all its moving pieces have officially died down. But health care still dominates our national agenda at a time when few of us can afford to be without it. Whether or not the so-called “Public Option” becomes part of any finalized health care bill signed into law, the average American will have to make some vital decisions about when, where and how to seek coverage. The old rules for group coverage no longer apply in the new economy.
no safety in numbers
As quickly as the US housing crash completely redefined what it means to live within our means, so are the days when finding a good job guarantees you’ll find affordable health coverage where you work. Companies of all sizes are cutting benefits now that they have reduced their workforce. As a result, the old-school “pool” insurance model is proving less and less sustainable. The good news is that as the debate rages on Capitol Hill, health insurance providers are restructuring their product portfolios to make coverage more affordable for millions of people, whether they’re employed or not.
“After salary, health insurance is the biggest expense any business has,” says Larry Johnson, human resources officer for the Nashville, Tennessee-based Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the for-profit hospital company. largest profit in the country. “The reality is that people can go online and go to the open market now and get low-cost, low-deductible health coverage on their own. It’s often cheaper than what we can provide our own employees.”
Inside out
In the same way that phone companies broke up into smaller regional providers in the 1980s (to address government concerns that telecommunications had become a monopoly of a few large providers), health insurance companies they are dividing from the inside out. It became clear several years ago, says an industry health insurance executive, that many health care companies saw the train of government reform coming.
“Changing an entire product suite, expanding a marketing strategy and creating a new pricing model for an industry that has hitherto been largely self-regulated doesn’t happen overnight,” says the independent health insurance agent based in Miami, Jerry Somers. “Public option or not, this has been in the corporate process for years before it got to the media or Congress. It’s only going to get more confusing before it gets better. I’m citing a lot of policies for people who are afraid of what we might end up with. when the government ends.”