NC Health Reform

The wrong kind of health reform could cost North Carolinians

Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 in What We Believe

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina strongly supports health care reform that covers everyone, controls costs, and promotes quality care.

However, we believe that legislation currently before Congress does little to control costs and would actually increase premiums for many North Carolinians, particularly for individuals and small businesses already struggling with the costs of care.

We’ve done a detailed analysis of the Senate health reform bill, based on our own extensive claims experiences as well as national studies. Under the Senate proposal, we found that costs for new individual policies will go up by more than 50 percent by year five of reform, while new policies for small businesses will increase over 30 percent over the same time.

Our analysis provides specific cost impact estimates for North Carolinians in several different age and health situations. It also discusses the reasons the bill would increase costs for so many people.Our report discusses its similarities and differences with the recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.  Despite the differences, the CBO report – as well as a recent report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – concludes that health care costs will increase, not decrease, under the Senate bill.

We encourage you to read through the analysis here. If you share our concerns, we ask you to contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support reform that controls costs and does not place the burden on those already struggling to afford medical care.