Got insurance? - or why I'm a prisoner in NH!

OK, let's focus on the insured today- not the uninsured. Insurance companies are in business to make money- more precisely, to make profit. There used to be many small insurance companies in NH. Now there are only two major insurance companies doing most of the business for the whole state. What happened? In the nineties NH passed a law requiring health insurance companies to cover small businesses. When they were forced to insure people in small businesses, they fled NH like rats leaving the ship to avoid unprofitable mandates. The larger companies had the volume of business to offset the risk. Prior to the law, they were not were not insuring the small, high risk businesses- rather they were just skimming the low risk, high profit policies where ever they could land them-- still leaving many small businesses with no affordable health insurance for their employees. There are now just two major health insurance companies doing most of the business in NH.

And let’s not forget why there are only two companies left- Federal law doesn’t permit insurance companies to operate beyond a state or region. This preserves their local monopoly and denies us choices of other large companies across the country (there are hundreds of them out there). When health insurance reform is passed, we’ll be able to shop around nationally- just like we do for a home mortgage- and get the best deal. This will increase competition and give us an opportunity to have the best policy for our situation, regardless of where we live. I live in NH. If I moved to Vermont my insurance company would cancel my policy. That’s unfair and stupid. If I have a pre-existing condition, I may not get any company to pick up my insurance if I moved- so I’m a prisoner of NH – all because of an insurance company!

Insurance reform will help all of us who are insured today by giving us more choices and the freedom to live wherever we want without the fear of losing our coverage. I can’t imagine why anyone other than an insurance company would be opposed to that kind of reform. If you are opposed to health insurance reform, then you are just dupes for the insurance industry- doing their bidding and keeping us all locked into a system that only benefits insurance companies- not us, the people who pay for it.