Mandate minus price controls may increase healthcare costs -- latimes.com

Mandate minus price controls may increase healthcare costs -- latimes.com
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The legislators' reluctance to control premium costs comes despite the fact that they intend to require virtually all Americans to get health insurance, an unprecedented mandate -- long sought by insurance companies -- that would mark the first time the federal government has compelled consumers to buy a single industry's product, effectively creating a captive market.

"We are about to force at least 30 million people into an insurance market where the sharks are circling," said California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat who served as the state's insurance commissioner for eight years. "Without effective protections, they will be eaten alive."

Soaring premiums coupled with millions of new customers forced to buy policies would likely mean higher costs for taxpayers to cover government subsidies for lower-income families and individuals.

They could also mean bigger bills for people who get benefits through work, as well as for their employers.

"I don't think there is any degree of confidence that our costs won't continue to go up," said Keith Ashmus, chairman of the National Small Business Assn.

If premiums continue to rise as quickly as they have over the last five years, the average annual cost of a family policy will exceed $24,000 in 10 years, up from $13,375 now, according to the nonprofit Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. ...