Betsy McCaughey, chief gaslighter of the Clinton health reform plan in 1993, and originator of the groundless charges in 2009 that blossomed into Sarah Palin's viral lie that the ACA was creating death panels, is out with fresh nonsense about the current individual market for health insurance and how Republicans might improve it.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, McCaughey claims that high risk pools could easily and effectively protect those with pre-existing conditions and so safely return the individual market to medical underwriting -- that is, basing health insurance pricing and availability on the health of each applicant.
McCaughey's claim that only about 500,000 Americans would be "in jeopardy" if ACA protections for those with pre-existing conditions were repealed is off by a probable factor of 10. Her argument in favor of high risk pools as a panacea is false in every particular.
To get to 500,000, McCaughey cites a 2010 report issued by Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak, then-chairs of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, finding that the four largest health insurers denied some 257,000 people coverage in 2009 on the basis of pre-existing conditions. She suggests that that was the total number of denials in that year, then adds in 70,000 reported by the four insurers to have been denied coverage for specific claims on the basis of "riders" excluding coverage for their pre-existing conditions, and 225,000 covered by pre-ACA high risk pools, to get her estimate.
That estimate is ridiculous on its face. The Waxman-Stupak report spells out explicitly that the four insurers provided data representing only a slice of the market -- somewhere between 10 and 30%, most likely.* The key finding was that 15.3% of applicants were denied coverage by medical underwriting. The report further cites an internal insurance company document to suggest that about one third of applicants were effectively shut out of the market, as many were discouraged from applying by brokers, or past experience.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, McCaughey claims that high risk pools could easily and effectively protect those with pre-existing conditions and so safely return the individual market to medical underwriting -- that is, basing health insurance pricing and availability on the health of each applicant.
McCaughey's claim that only about 500,000 Americans would be "in jeopardy" if ACA protections for those with pre-existing conditions were repealed is off by a probable factor of 10. Her argument in favor of high risk pools as a panacea is false in every particular.
To get to 500,000, McCaughey cites a 2010 report issued by Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak, then-chairs of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, finding that the four largest health insurers denied some 257,000 people coverage in 2009 on the basis of pre-existing conditions. She suggests that that was the total number of denials in that year, then adds in 70,000 reported by the four insurers to have been denied coverage for specific claims on the basis of "riders" excluding coverage for their pre-existing conditions, and 225,000 covered by pre-ACA high risk pools, to get her estimate.
That estimate is ridiculous on its face. The Waxman-Stupak report spells out explicitly that the four insurers provided data representing only a slice of the market -- somewhere between 10 and 30%, most likely.* The key finding was that 15.3% of applicants were denied coverage by medical underwriting. The report further cites an internal insurance company document to suggest that about one third of applicants were effectively shut out of the market, as many were discouraged from applying by brokers, or past experience.
