How Will Midterm Elections Impact Individual Health Insurance?
November 2010
Health coverage has been a very hot topic in the news and media as this month's elections loomed closer and closer for the embattled Democratic party.
So, how will the White House, insurance companies, and newly elected officials deal with
individual health insurance and the healthcare bill?
Insurance companies have a lot to gain, and a lot to lose. What they hope to gain is a roll back on certain taxes and limitations that control how much they charge specific groups of people.
Perhaps the mandate of most concern to insurance companies is the $70 billion in tax revenue that insurance companies would lose if the healthcare bill goes unchallenged until 2014.
The other big contender for insurance companies includes limits on how much they can charge seniors and sick Americans for
health coverage. While such limits save consumers a great deal of money, insurance companies aren't pleased at how much they stand to lose.
However, what insurance companies
want to keep in the
healthcare bill is perhaps the most contested piece of the legislation - mandates that require all Americans purchase some form of insurance, whether that is group health insurance, individual health insurance, family coverage, or otherwise.
Facts on:
Health Coverage
Did you know...
Midterm elections could have a significant impact on individual health insurance?
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While many people are uneasy about the mandate, insurance companies stand to gain millions of new customers, and were enthusiastic about the mandate when it was introduced.
The White House, for it's part, has a different set of concerns. It's unlikely that the healthcare bill could be overturned entirely, since such a move could be stopped by the Senate (if Democrats maintain their majority), and ultimately the White House.
But key portions of funding could be held up by Republicans, limiting the implementations of the health coverage designed in the bill. This could certainly prove very difficult to overcome, particularly since federally mandated monies are currently appropriated for everything from providing coverage for sick Americans and seniors, to setting up state-run insurance pools designed to provide individual health insurance and business health insurance in 2014.
In light of this shifting political landscape, it's hard to say what the healthcare bill, or health coverage in America, will look like in 2014.
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