Group and Private Insurance

I’ll give you one big reason why allowing health insurance companies to sell across state lines won’t solve our problems:  They are already selling across state lines!

Although Connecticut has only 1.5% of the nation’s population we have a significant amount of competition in our health insurance markets. We have 8 companies competing in the individual medical insurance market. We have 17 health insurance companies that compete in the group medical insurance market.

Almost all of the companies sell in multiple states. We have a Blue Cross Blue Shield franchisee. We have a United Health One subsidiary (formerly United Healthcare). Aetna and Cigna also sell in Connecticut.

The issue has been misrepresented by many people who are supposed to know what they are talking about. The issue isn’t whether or not insurance companies should be allowed to sell across state lines. The issue is about taking the states power away and making it easier for the insurance companies to sell across state lines.

Insurance companies want to get approval from one regulatory body and then be allowed to sell across the country. Allowing companies to do this will increase competition in theory, but in my opinion it will backfire in the long run.

This issue is smoke screen at best. And at worst it is part of a conspiracy to make the rich insurance companies richer and the rest of us poorer.