AAA Insurance Quotes

A recent United States Census study of the issue of affordable health insurance plans has found that states play an important, and often negative, role in determining whether their residents have access to a wide range of health policies at affordable prices. The Council for Affordable Health Insurance publishes a "State Health Insurance Index," which identifies and quantifies each state's health insurance environment. For example, citizens of Iowa, Utah,
Idaho, Minnesota, Kentucky and Kansas can choose from numerous competitively priced policies, while those living in New Jersey, New York, Maine and Massachusetts have only a few choices - and what is available is very expensive.

If You Can't Afford Affordable Health Insurance It Isn't Affordable

In the United States it has been found that state policies are driving up insurance rates making affordable health insurance harder to come by. The two most onerous state-level laws, passed by eight states in the early and mid-1990s, are guaranteed issue and community rating. These laws require insurers to accept any applicant regardless of health status and to charge everyone the same price, respectively. Together, they dramatically drive up health
insurance premiums within just a few years of implementation, which makes coverage unaffordable for all but the wealthiest and only increases the need for affordable health insurance.

States Must Find A Way To Provide Affordable Health Insurance Plans

In the United States state laws regarding guaranteed issue health insurance plans have driven up premiums seriously affecting affordable health insurance plans. But states weren't the only ones to implement guaranteed issue. In 1996, the federal government followed suit by passing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which imposed guaranteed issue on the small group market and had the effect of driving up small group premiums (as virtually all small businesses will attest). If states with guaranteed issue and community rating did nothing more than repeal those laws, allowing health insurers to underwrite again, premiums would begin to fall and competition would return thus making it possible for affordable health insurance plans to return.