The WellPoint Revelation

**Jason** · 10-29-2009, 08:28 AM

Washington is captivated by the Senate melodrama over the so-called public option, salivating at the ring of Harry Reid's political bell (see below). But the most important health-care questions continue to be about the policy substance—particularly those that Democrats don't want asked.

Foremost among them is: How will ObamaCare affect insurance premiums in the private health-care markets? Despite indignant Democratic denials, the near-certainty is that their plan will cause costs to rise across the board. The latest data on this score come from a series of state-level studies from the insurance company WellPoint Inc.

At the request of Congressional delegations worried about their constituents—call it a public service—WellPoint mined its own actuarial data to model ObamaCare in the 14 states where it runs Blue Cross plans. The study therefore takes into account market and demographic differences that other industry studies have not, such as the one from the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, which looked at aggregate national trends.

Not even two hours after Wellpoint had presented its materials on the Hill, Democrats were already trashing it—which, considering that it runs to some 238 pages and took weeks to prepare, must have required remarkable powers of digestion and analysis.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...177212064.html

Speed readers perhaps?

yustr · 10-29-2009, 08:51 AM

Two hours! Gosh they're slow. I was trashing it 20 seconds after I read your post. For this reason: why ask an insurance company to tell you if a public option - the goal of which is to force competition on insurance company costs - will raise premiums? Talking about asking the fox to guard the hen house.

Why didn't they ask an independent researcher to do the analysis? If they had I would have been tempted to read their anaylsis - now its not worth the effort.

Quote:

WellPoint's actuaries calculate the bill will rise to $79 because Democrats are going to require it to issue policies to anyone who applies, even if they've waited until they're sick to buy insurance.

Which is exactly why any proposal should include making coverage mandatory. BTW: It cost me about that $79/month to insure my 23 y/o son living 100 miles from Columbus but that includes dental too.

bry623 · 10-29-2009, 09:14 AM

We should have the right to refuse coverage. Then if we get sick and have to pay through the teeth, then it was our own fault. Personally, I don't believe anything I read about Healthcare from insurers, they are all a bunch or money greedy <TWIBAT>s.

If your son is still nearby, he can drive the 90 minutes to Newark (about 30 miles east of Columbus) and watch the world cup with me and my sons.

10-29-2009, 08:28 AM	#1 (permalink)
Jason Faugh a ballagh Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Pasco, FL Posts: 8,472 OS: Windows Vista My System Blog Entries: 2	The WellPoint Revelation Washington is captivated by the Senate melodrama over the so-called public option, salivating at the ring of Harry Reid's political bell (see below). But the most important health-care questions continue to be about the policy substance—particularly those that Democrats don't want asked. Foremost among them is: How will ObamaCare affect insurance premiums in the private health-care markets? Despite indignant Democratic denials, the near-certainty is that their plan will cause costs to rise across the board. The latest data on this score come from a series of state-level studies from the insurance company WellPoint Inc. At the request of Congressional delegations worried about their constituents—call it a public service—WellPoint mined its own actuarial data to model ObamaCare in the 14 states where it runs Blue Cross plans. The study therefore takes into account market and demographic differences that other industry studies have not, such as the one from the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, which looked at aggregate national trends. Not even two hours after Wellpoint had presented its materials on the Hill, Democrats were already trashing it—which, considering that it runs to some 238 pages and took weeks to prepare, must have required remarkable powers of digestion and analysis. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...177212064.html Speed readers perhaps? __________________ Posting Tips \| Advice for New People \| Common Fixes \| Agus na damnaithe fágtha gan focal Glaoigh ormsa i measc na naomh

10-29-2009, 09:14 AM	#3 (permalink)
bry623 Manager, The Conversation Pit/Analyst, Security Team Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: NW Territory circa 1787 Posts: 11,692 OS: winxp pro sp2	Re: The WellPoint Revelation We should have the right to refuse coverage. Then if we get sick and have to pay through the teeth, then it was our own fault. Personally, I don't believe anything I read about Healthcare from insurers, they are all a bunch or money greedy <TWIBAT>s. If your son is still nearby, he can drive the 90 minutes to Newark (about 30 miles east of Columbus) and watch the world cup with me and my sons. __________________ "If you aren't a liberal when you're 20, you have no heart. If you aren't a conservative when you are 50, you have no brain"