President Obama today released the details of his legislative proposal for overhauling health care. Among the provisions is an effort to limit rate increases by insurers — a move that comes on reports of double-digit proposed hikes this year by WellPoint and other insurance companies.
On Friday, Baker Institute fellow Vivian Ho spoke to American Public Media’s Marketplace program about increasing health care premiums.
Ho, who holds the James A. Baker III Institute chair in economics, says premiums are increasing because more healthy people are doing without expensive insurance. Insurers, as a result, are left with too many sick customers, and not enough healthy people who pay for insurance, but don’t need care.
“Affordable insurance is dying in a death spiral,” Ho told the program.
Read a transcript from and listen to the Feb. 19, 2010, Marketplace story, “Health reform push is about the pool“