888-765-5400N.C.’s LARGEST INSURER: Health care reform is a good first step
From J. Bradley Wilson, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina: Mark Twain wrote, “Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.” It might astonish many people that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina stands ready to implement what is likely to be the first of several waves of health care reform.
For the past 14 months, insurance companies have been poster children for what’s wrong with health care. In the face of relentless attacks by politicians, abetted by the news media, health insurers have not done a good job of explaining the value of health insurance.
To be sure, insurers sometimes have not helped our own cause. Some companies’ practices aimed at keeping premiums as low as possible for as many customers as possible can create isolated horror stories. Large premium increases this year in California – a direct result of spiraling medical costs – gave new energy to the push for health care reform legislation.
With the enactment of reform legislation, all of us have the opportunity to do what’s right – implement it as best we can. Even one of our harshest critics, the N.C. Health Access Coalition, predicts that more than 1 million uninsured North Carolinians will have insurance in the next nine years. What a wonderful outcome!
We’ve long advocated that everyone should have coverage. That’s the best way to spread costs – across young and old, sick and healthy.
The end of pre-existing condition exclusions and medical underwriting? Ditto, if done in a way that’s fair to those who’ve been paying their premiums all along.
Allowing family policies to cover dependent children until they’re 26? We’ve been doing that for years. So, we’re ready to do our part. But first, two other points.
Health insurance premiums will continue to go up. Americans expecting their costs to stay the same will be disappointed.
Here’s what Dr. Delos Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, told Fortune magazine: “There’s a dirty little secret, and I might as well tell you to start with. The secret is that regardless of what happens with health care reform legislation, the costs are going to go up. We have more elderly people, and we can do more for them. So regardless of what happens, we can really only try to contain the rate of inflation. The cost is going to go up over time.”
While the health care reform legislation does many admirable things, it doesn’t do anything to substantively address skyrocketing medical costs and increased use of health care procedures and drugs. It does little to encourage quality care, positive health outcomes or prevention.
And since the requirement to have coverage comes with a weak penalty, people will have little incentive to buy insurance until they’re sick, unfairly penalizing those who pay their share.
To control costs, we have to be bold and creative.
North Carolina cannot wait for the next round of health care reform, and neither can Blue Cross. We will collaborate with doctors and hospitals to reward quality health care, not quantity of health care. We will partner with doctors, hospitals and employers to pilot different methods of payment that reward health outcomes, not the number of medical procedures performed. The result: better health for patients.
So while Democrats are celebrating their victory and Republicans are strategizing their next moves, leaders from across North Carolina’s health care spectrum need to move forward and to follow Mark Twain’s advice. We’re ready to do our part.
Posted by Charlotte Observer on March 31. 2010 – For the Record offers commentaries from various sources. The views are the writer’s, and not necessarily those of the Observer editorial board.
For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our qualified agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). You may qualify for a 15% healthy lifestyle discount if you are in excellent health. Call us for details.