The national health program President Obama has signed in to law has divided people.
I was in the insurance business for over 30 years and I have a very good friend who has just retired from the insurance business. Both of us spent a number of years in the health insurance field.
The important thing to remember with respect to health insurance companies is that what Obama has done is to say essentially is that they cannot choose people who are healthy but they must take everyone. That puts them is the same boat as the government. The difference is the government has taxes to pay for insurance claims.
Both my wife and I are covered under government insurance and I can tell you at times they make decisions that are arbitrary, which gives them an advantage.
However, I am not so sure that private industry in the United States is not going to benefit from the attempt of the government to be more involved in the business world.
It seems based on a year and a half ago that companies have forgotten how to battle to get business. After all, we had lost ground to foreign competition. Also, we outsource which weakens the products. It seems to me the insurance companies won’t lie down. What may be ways they would battle the government?
Companies already offer guaranteed policies. They usually do this in conjunction with group coverage. The battle now will be to get the larger groups that are representative of the type that of presentation that government coverage would have. Next they can utilize other types of insurance such as life insurance to offset the losses they would have in the health insurance field. In other words if they were able to reduce the number of life insurance then they would be able to use the profits from that type of insurance to offset the losses that would occur in health insurance.
People will often accept larger deductibles for a smaller premium. In fact, currently companies do provide coverage in conjunction with Medicare coverage’s.
My friend and I thought, based on our experience and based on the possibilities from the insurance industry, you must remember they insure cars, homes, lives, health, motorcycles and about anything you can name.
To me it seems it would take no great mental effort to view the possibility of packaging products for a family. In other words if you purchase this package we would provide your health insurance regardless of your health.
The reason I believe the insurance companies will battle the government in this respect is they are going t review this as a single step toward trying to take their business in other lines. I believe the government may see this as advantageous since the worst type of insurance as far as losses is health insurance.
It will be interesting to see how the future unravels in this area.
References:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2372744/maclaren_stroller_company_recalls_11.html?cat=3
http://www.insure.com/articles/lifeinsurance/guaranteed-issue.html
Personal Experience
