Hello, I’m Bill Marino.

As health care reform continues to be debated in Washington, there is a growing concern that final legislation will fail to slow the growth of health care costs – a primary goal of reform. 

An important study recently issued by Oliver Wyman, an international actuarial consulting firm, concludes that current legislative provisions will, in fact, increase health care costs and therefore insurance premiums.  Unfortunately, a number of misconceptions about health insurance seem to be undermining positive reform efforts.

One misconception is around pre-existing condition exclusions, which health insurers’ support eliminating.  This provision is allowed under current law to prevent individuals from obtaining coverage after they learn they have an illness or diagnosis. 

For pre-existing conditions to be eliminated and still have a workable insurance system, all eligible individuals must have coverage.  That is the purpose of health care reform provisions requiring everyone to purchase insurance. 

If everyone is not required to have health insurance, and the costs for a pre-existing condition must be covered, it's the same as a homeowner buying insurance after his or her home has caught fire or a driver buying auto insurance after having an accident.  Premiums will skyrocket for consumers, employers and union funds because health individuals will not be in the insurance pool.

Recent amendments to reform legislation have significantly weakened the individual insurance requirement.  These amendments will make it more economical for healthy people not to purchase health insurance until they get sick.

Because reform legislation has weakened the individual requirement, the Oliver Wyman study estimates that premiums will increase by $1,500 for individuals and $3,300 for families.  And in New Jersey, small employers could see premiums increase by more than 20 percent. And these premium increases do not include medical inflation. 

Additionally, current reform proposals call for an annual $6.7 billion tax on health insurers.  Incredibly, some contend this tax will not increase health insurance premiums.

This is simply not true.  This tax will increase premiums. 

And this underscores the importance of the Oliver Wyman study because it demonstrates that proposed reforms will increase health care costs, making health insurance less affordable.  This will cause people to once again be priced out of the market, drop coverage and cause government deficits to grow.  Leaving us with failed reform and putting us right back where we started.

You can read the full Oliver Wyman study on this Web site.  We need Washington to focus on lower costs, better access, and improved quality.  Your elected officials need to hear from you.  Let’s not miss this opportunity to work together for responsible and affordable health care reform. 

Thank you.