Posted on 04/02/2010 6:25:25 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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Since 1993, Maine has required sellers of individual health-insurance policies to accept all applicants—foreshadowing a key provision of the national overhaul that will fully take effect in 2014.
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Anthem says these requirements, along with the state's high medical costs, have helped push up expenses, with 1% of individual policyholders in Maine driving 50% of claims costs. As premiums then rise, it says, they give healthy people incentives to forgo insurance in Maine, which has had no requirement that everyone be insured. "As those younger, healthier folks choose not to participate in the risk pool, the average costs per individual start to rise significantly," said Dan Corcoran, the president of Anthem's Maine operation
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Early last year, Anthem sought premium increases averaging 18.5% in the Maine individual market. That included its typical 3% "margin for profit and risk"—the term "risk" referring to the chance that claims would prove costlier than expected. This increase was designed to provide about a $2.5 million pretax profit. In Maine, any insurer seeking to raise rates first files a proposal. The state attorney general typically responds with its own analysis. The insurance superintendent gets an analysis from her own staff, hears public comment, then rules.
State Attorney General Janet Mills, in a move that people in her office call unprecedented, suggested that Anthem be allowed no profit margin because of the "extreme financial hardship" of subscribers in the tough economy. Her office said in a filing that Anthem could forgo profit for a year on its individual policies because its overall business in Maine was healthy, with a sizable surplus. Individual policies are a small part of its Maine operation, which has nearly $1 billion in annual revenue.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Obama can joke all he wants about the fact that his signing of the bill didn’t bring on Armageddon... and how that day was like just another sunny spring day.
However, Greece didn’t go bankrupt the very minute that their lawmakers signed the laws that would eventually lead to their demise either!
The UK did not explode when they established their socialized medicine program. It took decades for the damage to become apparent... and now it’s probably too late for them to save themselves.
Obamacare is not like a heart attack. It is a malignant cancer that starts almost silently, mutating cells one by one until it spreads throughout the entire body... once you realize the damage it has done... death (to our economy, our health and our freedom) is imminent.
Oh, the arrogance of Obama and the stupidity of all those who follow him!
Obamanationcare will force them to purchase it. Or fine them. There are not enough jails, so it will be fines, and those fines will keep going up, and up the more they resist.
Seems like the political types missed that part of basic math.
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