Insurance Information

The Immorality of Guarantee Issue Health Insurance


While there are genuine debates about whether privatized health insurance or nationalized health insurance policies make more sense, there can be little doubt that guarantee issue policies represent the most immoral type of hybrid between the two. The argument that everyone should be covered by health insurance is an argument for a nationalized health care policy. By contrast, believers in privatized health insurance argue that a private system yields more efficient pricing and cost controls in the health care field. But with guarantee issue health insurance policies, an immoral situation is created that undermines the benefits of a privatized system by poorly and immorally implementing some of the edicts of a nationalized system.

Canada has a nationalized health care policy that many in the U.S. wish to emulate. While the idea of promising health care benefits to all citizens is appealing, there are downsides. For example, many in Canada are forced into long waiting lines to receive health care treatment. In fact, the Canadian courts just ruled that many laws which barred citizens from seeking alternative health insurance options were unconstitutional. If the health care system in Canada were capable of serving all citizens in a timely manner, there would be no need to seek alternate routes. The Canadian courts were correct to view laws limiting how people can spend their own money for their own health benefits as inconsistent with their fundamental freedoms. But barring those attempts by legislators to enforce a monopoly on nationalized health insurance, the premise of taxpayers supporting a nationalized health care system makes sense from an ethical point of view. In such a system all taxpayers are subject to the same benefits and burdens with respect to their existing tax structures.

Similarly, a privatized health insurance system like that in place in the United States makes sense from an ethical standpoint. While it can lead to tragedies where uninsured people contract illnesses and cannot pay for medical treatment, it treats people in a fundamentally fair manner. Everyone is free to make their own decisions, and pay or suffer the potential consequences. Those who wish to spend money to guarantee funds are available in case of medical emergencies are free to do so, and at a price that falls within their statistical risks.

But guarantee issue laws for health insurance companies are fundamentally unfair. They punish those who are willing to pay for insurance by saddling them with costs far beyond what they should owe statistically, or what they should owe in a nationalized system. Health insurance rates in guarantee issue states like New York and New Jersey are around 3 to 4 times what they are in other states. Is it fair for a consumer in New Jersey to pay three times as much for the same health insurance as they would in another state? Of course it isn't. These consumers have been unfairly placed into a statistical pool that isn't representative of their health care needs, and forced to pay far more for health insurance than their situation dictates. And they are forced into this situation precisely because lawmakers have chosen a terrible hybrid model that removes any pretense of fairness in pricing that exist in the more natural nationalized and privatized models.

As more and more people in the guarantee issue states become unable to afford health insurance, those states will be forced to answer for the fact that their policies have made them leaders in the numbers of uninsured. A new law called the Health Care Choice Act is being proposed to allow residents of one state to purchase health insurance from another. While legislators in guarantee issue states will oppose such laws, they'll have a hard time pretending they're doing so on behalf of their constituents who are actually paying for health insurance.

Rex Ryan maintains the website:

http://www.buyinsurancecheap.info


MORE RESOURCES:

ABC Action News

Two Arrested in $422000 Theft from Lakeland Insurance Company
The Ledger
LAKELAND | Two family members of a former partner in a Lakeland insurance agency were arrested Friday night on charges related to theft of $422000 from the company, the Polk County Sheriff's Office announced today. Cynthia Applewhite, 32, of 3404 ...
Women charged with defrauding insurance company of $422KTbo.com
Pair arrested for stealing from family businessMyFox Tampa Bay
Women accused of stealing $422K from family insurance businessABC Action News
WKMG Orlando
all 7 news articles »


Holocaust survivors, heirs targeting German insurance giant
Sun-Sentinel
Rose, who now lives in Miami, remembers the family owned a life insurance policy through insurance giant Allianz, but it wasn't until last year that her son found his mother's and her parents' names on lists of beneficiaries that Allianz was forced to ...

and more »


Insurance may be a dry subject, but its TV ads aren't
DesMoinesRegister.com
In one from 1980 that's posted on YouTube, a narrator informs a cheery couple poised to buy a car that Allstate offers a discount for insurance on certain vehicles. “Different rates for different cars,” the narrator says. “You're in good hands with ...
Car Insurance Concepts Upgrades Technical Capabilities for InteractionMiddle East North Africa Financial Network

all 4 news articles »


Sarah Burke lacked insurance coverage from sponsor at time of fatal injury
Toronto Star
Star staff Sarah Burke did not have insurance in place from her sponsor when she was fatally injured in Park City Utah during a training run, according to a report from msnbc.com. “Sponsors in general do not provide insurance for the athletes, ...

and more »


CBS Local

Bill To Shrink Citizens' Insurance Heads To Senate
CBS Local
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMIami) – The Florida House, in an effort to cut the number of people insured by Citizens Property Insurance, passed a bill Friday that would let some customers be sent to largely unregulated 'surplus lines' companies, where critics ...
Alternative hurricane insurance clears HouseLocal 10
Donelon: Grants to insurers reduced state's riskThe Advocate
Florida House Budget Won't Hike Insurance PremiumsFirst Coast News

all 34 news articles »


NICL scam: CBI files charges against Reliance Industries Limited, 4 retired ...
Times of India
The probe also revealed that a majority of subscribers under the default insurance cover for telecom services policy could not be located due of inaccurate addresses. NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a chargesheet in a ...
Insurance scam: 5 NICL officials under CBI scannerZee News

all 2 news articles »


Bloomberg

BB&T buys insurance company for $570M
Winston-Salem Journal
BB&T Corp. said Friday it has made the largest deal for an insurance company in its history, buying the life, property and casualty-insurance divisions of Crump Group Inc. for $570 million in cash. Crump, based in Roseland, NJ, is the largest ...
BB&T to buy insurance brokerage for $570 mlnReuters
BB&T Purchases Leading Wholesale Insurance BrokerageMarketWatch (press release)
BB&T to Buy Crump Units for $570 Million to Build Life-Insurance BusinessBloomberg
BusinessWeek -Insurance Journal
all 82 news articles »


The Consumerist

Insurance Companies Bill Harms Consumers
Kansas City infoZine
Washington, DC - infoZine - New legislation introduced today would jeopardize nearly $900 million in estimated health insurance refunds or lower premiums for consumers. The bill (S.2068), authored by Senator Landrieu of Louisiana, guts a key protection ...
New Legislation Would Pad Health Insurance Coffers While Screwing Over ConsumersThe Consumerist
Study: Insurance Deductibles Doubled in Seven YearsMD News (press release)

all 5 news articles »


Daily Mail

Car insurance rip-off: 5000 firms chasing claims... and 700 of them have been ...
Daily Mail
Insiders say that Ms Greening is furious the legal establishment has tried to block reforms and protect its rich pickings from the scam, which is sending car-insurance premiums rocketing. The Prime Minister is to chair a special Downing Street summit ...



CoventryOne Simplifies Health Insurance Options for Early Retirees
MarketWatch (press release)
"Obtaining affordable health insurance at this chapter in one's life is especially important," said Robert Fox, VP, Individual Business, Coventry Health Care. "It's a good idea to start reviewing health benefit options at least a few months before ...

and more »

Google News

home | site map | contact | Partners
© 2006 - insurance-information.cliczoom.com