Saturday, February 20, 2010

Spokesman For Health Insurance Industry Says System is Broken

When a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the leading health insurance lobbying group, says the health care system is broken, who is left to argue that it isn't? Here is his response to the sharp increases in insurance rates in California this year.
"A lot of what you see today is a product of the way the market works," said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's Washington-based lobbying arm. "The market is broken. Those people who do need the coverage wind up covering the cost of everyone else." Link
While there is a lot broken about the system, what Zirkelbach is referring to here is the number of people covered by insurance. And in this case, he is right. More Americans need to be covered to lower costs for everyone, that's why there is the individual mandate in the Senate bill.

Read more