Ten Small-Scale Reforms For Pre-existing (Chronic) Conditions

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Instead of more political meddling in insurance markets like guaranteed issue and community rating, the following free-market-oriented reforms would help alleviate the problems with pre-existing conditions.  From John Goodman at the Health Affairs Blog: Encourage Portable Insurance. Allow Special Health Savings Accounts for the Chronically Ill.  Allow Special Needs Health Insurance. Allow Health ...

ObamaCare’s high-risk pools may deny coverage

Friday, July 9th, 2010

This week the Denver Business Journal and the Denver Post reported on Colorado's new federally subsidizes high-risk pools ("GettingUSCovered"). But there's a good reason to be concerned about quality and access. The Hill reports: The Obama administration has not ruled out turning sick people away from an insurance program created by ...

Get ready for health insurance slumlords

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

My latest article at Pajamas Media begins: If you dislike your health insurer now, just wait until politicians impose price controls that make your insurer act like a slumlord. Expect worse customer service, skimpier plans, and more claim denials. Price controls on rental properties encourage ...

Free-market insurance and pre-existing conditions

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Paul Hsieh, MD has written a review of how a free market in medical insurance would address customer concerns about how changes in health status can effect premiums and insurability.   He of course mentions health status insurance as an example. My favorite part of the article concerns how rights connect ...

Real health insurance, questionable claims

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

In response to Bill Scanlon's article in the new InDenverTimes: I agree that no one in the U.S. really has health insurance.  Thanks to a tax code that discounts employer-sponsored insurance, It's tied to your job (for most people), so you can lose it with job loss.  This also exposes you ...

Health-status insurance and becoming uninsurable - a review

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

As I noted recently, health-status insurance could be a free-market solution to making sure you'll have medical insurance when you need it, even if you get sick.  Ronald Bailey provides a good review of John Cochrane's policy analysis here at Reason.com.

How health-status insurance addresses pre-existing conditions problem

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

I cannot remember wanting to cheer and applaud after reading a policy analysis.  But this is how pleased I was with a new Cato Institute Policy Analysis by University of Chicago finance professor John H. Cochrane: Health-Status Insurance: How Markets Can Provide Health Security. In short, health-status insurance addresses what worries people ...