| Health insurance to go up in 2010
Healthcare insurance premiums will be considerably more expensive next year, partly as a result of swine flu, report the Trouw and the free newspaper Spits on Friday. In an interview with Spits, health insurer CZ says that it expects costs to rise by as much as €10 a month in 2010. As well as swine flu, premiums will be higher because of the increasing number of older people, higher salaries in the healthcare sector and more cases of diabetes and other diseases, say the papers. They also point out that the health ministry used reserves to keep health costs for consumers down this year. According to the Trouw, this measure meant premiums in 2009 were €5 cheaper than they would have been otherwise. It is unclear whether a similar compensation is being considered for next year.
"This American Life" On Health Insurance's Fine Print
This is when people with individual insurance policies come down with an illness (or get pregnant) and the insurance company denies coverage by claiming it was a preexisting condition. As exhibit A, the segment focuses on Robin Beaton, a woman diagnosed with invasive breast cancer whose insurance was rescinded after Blue Cross Blue Shield misinterpreted an old acne diagnosis of Beaton's as pre-cancerous. You can listen to or download the segment online for free here. It is excellent. Ira Glass looks at the fine print in health insurance [PRI] .
Why Big Pharma wants health insurance reform
To recap: Initially, Megan McArdle wrote that she doesn't want health insurance reform because it will entail the elimination of a robust private health care/insurance sector, and that will curtail innovation in pharmaceuticals and technology. I responded that the reforms proposed in Congress don't eliminate private health insurance or care; they rely on it, like most of the world's universal health care systems in Europe and elsewhere. Megan then responded that the current reforms in Congress are just the "camel's nose", and they will ultimately lead to the crushing of private health insurance and/or care. I responded that they won't, because evidence shows that all those European health insurance systems that have for 60+ years relied on a robust, regulated private insurance sector (France, Germany, the Netherlands, etc.) still have robust, regulated private insurance sectors.
Charles Melvin "Charlie" Mishey
MANSFIELD: Part of what made Charlie Mishey such a good insurance professional, were his people skills. He delighted in people � be they friends, clients, family � and interacted with them on a personal level. More than "a talker", Charlie was a master storyteller, complete with pointing fingers and hand gestures, he wouldn't have been able to talk if his hands had been tied down! His tales have become memories, as Charlie passed away Thursday morning, August 13, 2009, a result of injuries he received in a July 19 automobile accident. That accident also claimed the life of his devoted wife, Ellen L. Mishey. Born Charles Melvin Mishey on May 9, 1926 in Washington Township to Styrl M. and Mary Ann (Pollock) Mishey, he was graduated from Lexington High School in 1944.
Follow up: Health care forum changes few minds
Herwig said he fears government reform will expand beyond current plans, eventually snuff out private insurance and ultimately lead to rationing of health care and government-sponsored euthanasia. Nothing U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield had to say on the topic was going to sway him, he said. With sharp ideological lines forming between advocates of reform and fierce opponents of government intervention, Butterfield, D-1st District, didn’t expect to change the minds of too many protesters during the town hall forum Tuesday in Rocky Mount. "I think I eased concerns for some people, though," Butterfield said. "The folks who oppose reform at all costs – some of these political operatives – are not going to be convinced. I knew that." Republicans have countered such statements, saying the boisterous protests are a reflection of true public opposition to health care reform.
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