Mandated benefits increase insurance premiums
August 5th, 2009 | by Brian Schwartz |From a Boston Globe op-ed on mandated benefits:
None of the 32 current mandates is a budget buster, but taken together they do add to premiums. A study last year by the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy found that state mandates beyond those in federal law added about 3 to 4 percent to the cost of insurance.
Colorado has 49 mandated benefits,, and Colorado ’s Chief Medical Officer has stated that 2,500 Coloradans lose insurance for every one percent increase in premiums. Nationally, studies find mandated benefits to be responsible for up to twenty-five percent of America ’s uninsured.
Check out Donald Boudreaux’s letter to the editor in response to the Globe’s op-ed.
tags: Colorado health care, mandated benefits, Massachusetts health
