Health Bill

Health Bill Reading

SEC. 213. INSURANCE RATING RULES.

(a) IN GENERAL.—The premium rate charged for a qualified health benefits plan that is health insurance coverage may not vary except as follows:

(1) LIMITED AGE VARIATION PERMITTED.—By age (within such age categories as the Commissioner shall specify) so long as the ratio of the highest such premium to the lowest such premium does not exceed the ratio of 2 to 1

(2) BY AREA.—By premium rating area (as permitted by State insurance regulators or, in the case of Exchange-participating health benefits plans, as specified by the Commissioner in consultation with such regulators).

(3) BY FAMILY ENROLLMENT.—By family enrollment (such as variations within categories and compositions of families) so long as the ratio of the premium for family enrollment (or enrollments) to the premium for individual enrollment is uniform, as specified under State law and consistent with rules of the Commissioner.

Comment: Premiums can only vary on the basis of age by a factor of 2. So, a coverage provider can only charge a 78 year old, 894 pound, 2 pack a day smoker, diagnosed with colon cancer and diabetes twice as much as they can charge a 20 year old who appears to be in perfect health.

It's pretty simple, young and healthy people will be picking up a significant part of the tab for old and unhealthy people. If you are among the latter, then you should probably be saying thank you. If you are among the former, well, um, uh, yeah, so, sorry about your luck

The goal of this reform is not to reduce health care costs and increase quality, it is to redistribute those costs among people such that some are paying much more than their fair share, and some are paying much, much less than their fair share.