The Truth About Getting Sick in America by Tim Johnson

Author:Tim Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books

Looking Ahead to the 2014 Exchange System

The reason it is so important to understand what an exchange is—and is not—is that such exchanges, to be established at the state level by 2014, are at the heart of the new health bill. By now, you should understand that an exchange is a “place”—for most of us, it will be an Internet site—that allows you to choose an insurance plan that is best for you and/or your family. Like the federal employees’ exchanges, the ones that are supposed to be available to many Americans by 2014 will compare insurance plans in plain English with no hidden conditions or costs. And because the insurance companies will be competing for your business, they should be offering the best possible deal they can and still survive financially. Obviously, it makes a big difference who is running these exchanges. At this point, you will not be surprised to read that I believe the federal government should set the basic rules and conditions. Whether or not the states will be able to run the exchanges on a day-to-day basis depends on how the whole system is structured, but in my view, the Federal Government has to play a strong role in order to guarantee that all insurance companies play by the same rules and standards. It is ultimately the only way that all of our citizens can be offered a level playing field when they try to buy insurance.

At this point, I think it would be informative to look at another large industrialized country that has implemented this idea of the federal government as a regulator of private insurance, in a somewhat different way. I have chosen Germany because it is the largest economy in Europe and intensely capitalistic in orientation.

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