Yes, this is Texas-based, but the basic principle is the same.
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Editorial: Give health exchanges a chance to work
Dallas Morning News, September 27, 2013
Regardless of your politics, if you don’t have medical insurance, you owe it to yourself and your family to look at the options when health insurance exchanges go online Tuesday.
Health care costs are high partly because more than 40 million Americans lack insurance. In Dallas County, about 26 percent of residents aren’t covered; Texas ranks near the top in its number of uninsured residents.
When the uninsured experience a medical crisis, there are two possible outcomes — both of them bad: staggering medical expenses that drain their bank accounts or care that winds up being financed by taxpayers.
The exchanges won’t cure all our health care system’s ills, nor will the rollout be glitch-free. There remain legitimate concerns about long-term economic impacts, including cost issues that led this newspaper to oppose the law at the time of its passage.
But the law was passed by Congress and signed by the president. Now it’s important to give the new system an honest try.
For some, paying something instead of nothing may feel like sticker shock at first. But others, such as small-business owners, probably will find themselves paying less for coverage than they would have if they purchased it in the individual insurance marketplace. That’s because the exchanges are designed to marry pools of buyers and multiple insurers.
In essence, the exchanges are websites that consumers will use to compare plans before buying coverage. Many of the participating insurers will offer benefits similar to those in traditional employer-based plans. Despite claims to the contrary, this is not government-run insurance. In contrast, these exchanges are a sensible, market-based approach that was first envisioned years ago by conservative think tanks.
Getting millions more Americans, especially young, healthy adults, enrolled in private-based insurance plans is a step toward stemming costs.
It’s also worth noting that if you already have insurance through your employer’s group plan, nothing will change. Other provisions of the Affordable Care Act have allowed children to stay on their parents’ policy until age 26 and forced insurers to stop denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
Critics of Obamacare would be wise to stop throwing wrenches into the gears of the developing system and instead allow the exchanges a chance to work. For example, Gov. Rick Perry has urged more rules for the federally funded navigators assigned to help people evaluate the insurance plans. Given that 2 million Texans will be eligible for insurance through the exchanges, far better for Perry not to undermine implementation. After all, getting the uninsured to pay for their own coverage — as opposed to having taxpayers foot the bill — would be a great thing for all of us.
Most reasonable people would agree that the economics of health care must change. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the blueprint for that transformation, so let’s give it a chance.
Getting signed up
Oct. 1: Open enrollment in health care exchanges begins.
January: Coverage begins.
March: Open enrollment closes.
Where to learn more: HealthCare.gov; call 1-800-318-2596; TTY: 1-855-889-4325.
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