Comments on: Health Insurance Mandate Needed for Plan to Work http://www.healthinsurancetipsblog.com/mandate-needed-for-plan-to-work/ Get Health Insurance Tips Here Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:35:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Ken Zimmerman http://www.healthinsurancetipsblog.com/mandate-needed-for-plan-to-work/#comment-92 Ken Zimmerman Sun, 30 Nov 2008 04:54:51 +0000 http://www.healthinsurancetipsblog.com/?p=103#comment-92 I think that is a very good point. Many people do not realize that insurance companies, just like any other business, must be profitable in order to continue to provide services. Without a very large risk pool, insurance companies would simply not be able to cover pre-exisitng conditions. This is the main reason that group insurance carriers are required to cover pre-existing conditions, while individual health insurers are not. That said, I'm not sure what would be the best way to impose a mandate that requires health insurance coverage. What would be the penalty for not carrying the required insurance? With car insurance, states can easily impose penalties (otherwise few people would carry state-mandated auto liability coverage), but what can you take away to compel people to purchase health insurance coverage? An interesting idea... but I'm just not sure how it would work. I hope it does, though. I think that is a very good point. Many people do not realize that insurance companies, just like any other business, must be profitable in order to continue to provide services.

Without a very large risk pool, insurance companies would simply not be able to cover pre-exisitng conditions. This is the main reason that group insurance carriers are required to cover pre-existing conditions, while individual health insurers are not.

That said, I’m not sure what would be the best way to impose a mandate that requires health insurance coverage. What would be the penalty for not carrying the required insurance? With car insurance, states can easily impose penalties (otherwise few people would carry state-mandated auto liability coverage), but what can you take away to compel people to purchase health insurance coverage?

An interesting idea… but I’m just not sure how it would work. I hope it does, though.

]]>