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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis one unbelievably expensive Iowa patient makes the case for single-payer healthcare
Back in mid-2016, Iowa customers of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, the dominant company in the states individual insurance market, got a shock: Premium increases of 38% to 43% were in store for many of them for this year.
Three weeks ago they got a bigger shock: Wellmark was pulling out of Iowas individual market entirely, leaving the state with one company selling individual policies. Wellmark placed some of the blame on congressional Republicans failure to come up with a coherent repeal plan for the Affordable Care Act, leaving plans for 2018 in legislative limbo. With Wellmarks departure, Iowas individual market may be down to a single insurer next year.
But Iowa has another problem that appears to be unique for a state its size: one single state resident whose care costs $1 million a month. Thats enough to all but destroy an individual insurance market that comprises about 30,000 customers. Indeed, that one patients care, according to Wellmark, was responsible for 10 percentage points of the 43% premium increase this year.
The patient has not been identified; nor has his or her medical condition, beyond a statement by Wellmark that he or she suffers from a complicated and severe genetic disorder. Speculation in the healthcare industry about the reasons for the expense focuses on the cost of the patients medications.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-iowa-20170424-story.html
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Calista241
(5,586 posts)HIPPA violation. Whether anything personally identifiable was released or not.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Last edited Wed Apr 26, 2017, 10:49 AM - Edit history (1)
Tom Rinaldo
(22,912 posts)OK, that's speculation on their part but well founded. Again, drug prices, and again Congress opposes any efforts to allow any government agency to negotiate with drug companies about drug prices unlike virtually everywhere else in the world, insuring that Americans always pay the highest prices on Earth for medications