Health Insurers Willing to End Policy of Higher Cost for Sick

The NY Times featured the following article about the health insurance industry and a discussion of a national plan. This is a positive development for nonprofits, who continue to struggle to address rising health insurance costs for their employees. With yearly increases of 10-15%, nonprofits are increasingly cutting health insurance coverage or passing on more of the costs to their employees.

As the article relates, the health insurance industry is now willing to end the practice of charging higher premiums to sick people if Congress adopted a comprehensive plan requiring all Americans to carry insurance. Insurers are still opposed to creating a government-run health insurance plan, and instead, are willing to negotiate on their longstanding policies, such as pricing insurance policies, in part, on the basis of a person’s medical condition or history. This new position, which came as a surprise to lawmakers, could narrow the issues on which insurers are ready to fight the Democrats now controlling Congress and the White House.

Council Services Plus, the insurance subsidiary of the New York Council of Nonprofits, will continue to track these developments. Questions about insurance, contact us anytime.