Escalating health insurance rates heavy burden for local families
DAN MEYER Political Columnist
Afriend of mine who I hadn't talked to in about six months called me at home the other day to catch up on things and basically see how I was doing both personally and professionally.

After the usual chatter about our favorite sports teams and a brief back-and-forth debate about the importance of not allowing holiday guests to "double-dip" their chips, our conversation quickly turned to work-related items and those dreaded increasing rates for health insurance.

My buddy's description of what the escalating rates are doing to his personal bottom line - when comparing the skyrocketing price increases to his meager hike in his yearly income - was nothing confusing or complicated. He revealed his true feelings about how much health insurance coverage is becoming a heavy burden for many Western New York families such as his.

"It's killing me, man," said this married father of two who purchased his first home less than two years ago. "It's just killing me."

Definitely an accurate and also a somewhat ironic description, given the fact that he used the "killing" term to talk about something called "health" insurance. The cost to have even basic coverage is doing severe damage to my friend and many others when it comes to the pocketbook.

With that conversation in mind, I was very pleased to see a press release from Erie County Legislator Kathy Konst cross my desk last week that talked about the County Legislature's unanimous approval of a resolution that strongly recommends to both the State Assembly and the Senate that they pass bills to end the dreaded practice known as "file and use," related to the increasing rates for health insurance providers.

The passage of the two bills would help to restore the State Insurance Department's authority to review rate increases in excess of 5 percent for individuals and small groups. In addition, the state would also be required to hold public hearings on health insurance providers' requests before they make a decision on the increase requested by them.

The way things stand now, HMOs and nonprofit insurers can just file and use increased rates of any magnitude without any sort of approval coming from the state.

As Konst eloquently stated in her release, all health insurance providers should be required to justify every penny of the requested rate increase.

Time for some simple math when talking about what a beating we (and when I say "we" I'm speaking about Joe and Nancy Taxpayer) are all taking when it comes to health insurance rate hikes and how the corporate monster HMOs are profiting while many of us are literally living paycheck to paycheck.

Between 2001 and 2005, HMO profits have increased a whopping 93 percent. That's no typo, that's 93 percent.

The legislation that our elected leaders at the county level hope will be approved by the other two levels of government would restore for individuals and small businesses the same cost-containment procedures that the state now uses to restrain the overall growth of premiums that it pays.

The time has come to eliminate discrepancies in the regulatory treatment of commercial and nonprofit health plans and HMOs. Here's hoping that the County Legislature's forward thinking will be heartily endorsed by the Assembly and the Senate, and eventually we will see the ultimate demise of "file and use," so that public hearings on rate increases for health insurance will be held on an annual basis.

One more side note on my friend and our phone conversation. As we discussed our respective plans for New Year's Day, I revealed that I was lucky enough to land a ticket for the Buffalo Sabres-Pittsburgh Penguins "Winter Classic" outdoor ice hockey game at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

"Big deal, Dan," said my friend. "I got one, too."

"So I'll see you there?" I asked.

"Nope," he responded. "Turns out I can't afford it. I had to sell it on e-Bay."

(Daniel Meyer is a columnist for the Weekly Independent Newspapers of Western New York. Opinions expressed here are those of the author.)