Affordability
Health
insurance premiums over the past ten to twenty years have been rising
consistenly. Living expenses in general have been on a steady up swing
for about the past ten years. Heating expenses, water and sewage,
telephones, paid television services, groceries at your local
supermarket, electrical utilities and especially gas. The rise has been
absolutely phenomenal and yet employers are having a difficult time in
raising the pay scales for their employees. Along with this is the
ever-growing problem of affordability for goods and necessary services.
The increasing rise in health insurance coverage and expense for the
self-employed individual has now grown out of hand. The Governor of New
York is attempting to oversee and hopefully correct this problem
through legislation before the state house. The Governor is trying to
find a workable plan to improve the status of affordable health care
for all participants within the Greater New York area, including those
who are self employed. If this particular legislation is approved all
participating health insurers in New York would not be able to raise
their rates arbitrarily. Surely, this will go into some type of
arbitration because the multitudes of insurers functioning in New York
are not pleased. In this new approach, it is important for residents to
procure accessibility to the various carriers that conduct business.
One of the changes will be for insurance carriers to gain approval from
the State first, through request submissions, before they will be able
to consider raising the premiums at will. The new overseer of this
project will probably be designated to the Superintendent’s office for
further review. Along the lines of self-regulation, this has not been a
successful project in the past. Now is definitely the appropriate time
to research an innovative approach. In this way those participants who
are self employed will be able to ascertain the best New York insurance
policy at a competitive price. This would be a winning solution to aid
in keeping the ever-rising costs down and the type of coverage high.
Health insurance coverage in New York at the current time is at an all
time high and any effort to assist in reducing the cost would be a step
in the right direction. Many plans are just so inaccessible to those
involved in the self-employed system and the changes being recommended
would once again put them within reach. In the mean time, the clock is
running out for the self-employed to locate and keep affordable
insurance coverage whether it is just for the person or for a family
run business.