CAHI Releases Issues & Answers Publication on Guaranteed Issue Laws: 'What Were These States Thinking?'

5/30/2002

From: Tom Gardner of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, 703-836-6200 ext. 386; tgardner@cahi.org

News Advisory:

WHAT: Issue Debate - Guaranteed Issue: "What Were These States Thinking?" a CAHI Issues & Answers publication. Why are states passing guaranteed issue laws for health insurance? CAHI looks at the long-term consequences for a short-term "fix."

WHO: Victoria Craig Bunce, director of research and policy, Council for Affordable Health Insurance

WHEN: Whenever guaranteed issue health care legislation threatens to pass.

BACKGROUND:

Could you afford to pay a health insurance premium that has skyrocketed to more than $15,000 per month? If you live in a state that has passed guaranteed issue health insurance legislation, you may have this problem soon. For example, before New Jersey passed guaranteed issue legislation in 1994, a family policy would cost from $504 to $1,076 per month. By January, 2002 that same policy cost between $3,085 and $17,550.

CAHI Director Dr. Merrill Matthews commented, "I'm sure the legislators who passed guaranteed issue wanted to make health insurance affordable for everyone." Matthews continued, "However, they accomplished the complete opposite. Health insurance has become very expensive in those states, and most of the insurers have left the market, leaving consumers with very few choices."

Even now, some members of Congress are considering making guaranteed issue a nation-wide reality. The health insurance market needs more competition and more options, not less. If congress were to pass guaranteed issue we would have less affordability, less coverage and ultimately less health care.

For more information on this topic, or a copy of "What Were These States Thinking?", please call Tom Gardner, director of communications, Council for Affordable Health Insurance, at 703-836-6200 ext. 386.

The Council for Affordable Health Insurance is a research and advocacy association of insurance carriers active in the individual, small group, MSA, and senior markets. Since 1992, the Council for Affordable Health Insurance has been advocating market-oriented solutions for the problems in America's health care system.