New York Offers Costly Lessons on Insurance
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Apr 20th, 2010
New York Offers Costly Lessons on Insurance
Today’s New York Times reports that New York state's insurance system has been a working laboratory for the core provision of the new federal health care law — insurance even for those who are already sick and facing huge medical bills — and an expensive lesson in unplanned consequences.
Premiums for individual and small group policies have risen so high that state officials and patients’ advocates say that New York’s extensive insurance safety net is “falling apart”.
The new federal health care law tries to avoid similar problems by requiring everyone to have insurance and penalizing those who do not, as well as offering subsidies to low-income customers. But analysts say that provision could prove meaningless if the government does not vigorously enforce the penalties, as insurance companies fear, or if too many people decide it is cheaper to pay the penalty and opt out.
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