Basic Health Plan premiums to rise sharply

[thundley4]

Premiums for Washington's Basic Health Plan will as much as double in January as part of a strategy to drive thousands of members off the popular but cash-strapped state-subsidized insurance program.

Ending weeks of deliberations, officials announced this morning that they will boost Basic Health's rates by an average of 70 percent as part of their effort to boot 30,000 to 40,000 working-class people off its rolls.

Officials rejected four other potential options on how to shrink the 100,000-member pool, including a lottery and ejecting members based on how long they'd been on the program.

In the end, officials punted on the dilemma, leaving it up to the members themselves to decide whether to stay or to leave.

"This is the best possible option out of difficult choices," said Preston Cody, deputy administrator of Washington State Health Care Authority, the agency that operates Basic Health.

Link

Another state run healthcare system having financial problems, who'd thunk it.  Can't wait to see how something like this might work on a national scale.

[NHSparky]

Hmmmm...let's see...health plan designed to help poor.  Subsidized by the state, so lots of people who could afford their own insurance jump on the bandwagon.

State getting hosed, decides to jack up premiums so the people who were originally intended to be covered can no longer afford coverage, leaving the lazy sonsabitches who leech off the state as the only remaining participants, and actual numbers of uninsured doesn't go down, but gross waste of money continues.

Did I get that about right?

[docstew]

Hmmmm...let's see...health plan designed to help poor.  Subsidized by the state, so lots of people who could afford their own insurance jump on the bandwagon.

State getting hosed, decides to jack up premiums so the people who were originally intended to be covered can no longer afford coverage, leaving the lazy sonsabitches who leech off the state as the only remaining participants, and actual numbers of uninsured doesn't go down, but gross waste of money continues.

Did I get that about right?

you're forgetting about the calls for health care reform due to high numbers of uninsured, complete with sob stories about those who "have to choose between high state health premiums and food."