The Tribune’s enthusiastic endorsement of the House Republican proposal for managed care reform (“GOP gets it right on HMO reform,” Editorial, June 29) is disappointing and misguided. The GOP plan is a catchall of election-year, feel-good measures guaranteed to raise costs and make health care less affordable to more consumers.
The biggest cost drivers in the Republican proposal are mandatory appeals, fines and point-of-service requirements for health plans. An independent Coopers & Lybrand study has found that such provisions would raise costs to consumers by as much as 11 percent. That’s a hefty price to pay for an imaginary problem perpetuated by the medical establishment with the help of the media.
Another recommendation, which the Tribune claims is the “best piece of the GOP package,” is a thinly disguised Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangement. These health insurance purchasing cooperatives make it easier for small businesses to join together to buy health insurance, supposedly at lower large-group rates.
MEWAs may sound good in theory, but in reality they’re an experimental failure. The problem with MEWA-like arrangements is that they encourage adverse risk selection, disrupting the health insurance market, raising costs for some and forcing employers to drop coverage for their workers.
Equally important, MEWAs have a history of fraud and abuse.
As the Tribune has noted in more thoughtful editorials, legislated mandates drive up the cost of health care and increase the number of Americans who can’t afford coverage. The Tribune should be pressing legislators to stop bribing voters with feel-good soporifics and begin offering real reforms aimed at lowering costs for everyone.
