HUFFINGTON
08.19.12
PROGNOSIS UNCLEAR
older people, and excluded coverage for major expenses like maternity care. A key way the law
makes this possible is the individual mandate that nearly everyone obtain health care coverage,
which will push younger, healthier people with low medical costs
to pay into the system.
Although the industry should
benefit from access to millions of
new customers — many of whom
will receive tax credits — no one
really knows what this new market for individual health insurance
is going to look like.
The health insurance industry is
weighing these considerations as
companies try to determine how to
design their new products and how
much to charge for them. “Whether or not the costs are affordable
will be very dependent on whether
individuals who are young and
healthy purchase coverage,” Karen
Ignagni, the president and CEO of
the trade group America’s Health
Insurance Plans, said at a conference hosted at the National Press
The exterior
of the Johns
Hopkins
Hospital
on Aug. 7.