As an educator of grad students, and an insurance broker, I love what you are saying about “unbundling” the components, and about the categories of “insurance”/healthcare.

One question: Do you have stats on the income/poverty levels of those who are uninsured?
Seems to me I recall hearing at some conference at UCLA years ago, that 70% of the uninsured were under 40, could afford it, but were not inclined to “bet against themselves” so to speak.
It was proposed that bringing these healthy folks into the risk pool would make a difference in terms of affordability. I’m pretty sure the person who delivered the message was Robbie Pearl of Kaiser, so that would make it credible. When I mentioned this to a cardiologist I know, who was complaining about the lack of technicians to run the Stress Tests, he admitted that his own daughter, age 25, was not insured!

Arizona is making it possible for parents to cover their kids up to age 28 under employee coverage (I believe the parents pay most or all of the premium). Today in CA it’s still 19 unless they’re in school in which case the age limit expands to 23.

I emailed this to Bruce Bodaken at Blue Shield, and he gave it to his chief actuary, who responded that it is probably a good idea; in times past, the only parents who’d need to insure their kids would be those with “Sickies” who couldn’t work. Today though, so many are in school and working in jobs that don’t provide coverage till much later in life, he felt it would be a reasonable risk. Again, it would lower % of uninsured. But do you know if those numbers would be significant?

Also, have you read the proposal submitted by AHIP – America’s Health Insurance Plans – asking government support to expand Medicaid type coverage beyond the really really poor to the moderately poor?

Last question: At that same conference, I questioned whether those insured were going to be able to afford the premium increases that would be passed on to them in the process of developing health IT, or Electronic Health Records. Now we have a bit of a scandal, exposed by an e-mail, from Kaiser, that is dealing with this same issue. What’s your perspective?

Again, thank you so much for your thoughtful and insightful perspective, which I will pass on to students.

And thanks in advnace for your response,

Bett Lujan Martinez, M.Ed. CA License #0794318
Martinez Insurance Solutions & Adjunct Professor, CIIS Masters in Integrative Health Program
well-being@pacbell.net; 510-526-0312