Though well intended, mandates increase the cost of providing health care at a time when employers can ill afford it. As the 2005 uninsured numbers note, employers are already dropping health coverage because of rising costs. Rather than micromanaging the provision of health benefits, Congress should focus on increasing access to health coverage. After all, access to coverage is the best patient protection of all.
Mandate legislation unravels the ability of many employer and union health plans to administer their benefits uniformly in the many states in which they operate. These proposals could destroy the framework established in 1974 that has allowed large employer and union health coverage to flourish and provide coverage to tens of millions of workers and their families.
Though well intended, government health mandates have unintended consequences for consumers and patients. Coverage mandates lock in certain standards of care, which are very quickly superseded by new medical technologies and care practices of health care providers. As such, in the time it takes for a mandate to be written into law, it may well be out of date. In addition, as each mandate increases the cost of health benefits, employers may limit or reduce health care coverage.
Health mandates are not necessary. Given time, the health care market responds to the demands of consumers, adding necessary services and treatments and eliminating those for which there is little interest. For example, in the time that Congress debated PBOR, health plans increased access, choices, and benefits, not because the government forced them to, but because it’s good business.
With costs increasing, employers face increased difficulty in providing health care coverage to workers. The number of Americans who are uninsured rose to more than 47 million in 2006, largely because small employers eliminated employer-sponsored health coverage for workers. In 2007, employers endured another year of increases in the cost of providing medical benefits; premiums rose by 6.1 percent in 2007 and are expected to increase again in 2008. The increase in employer costs translates to pared back coverage and increased co-pays and deductibles for workers – with more to come. According to a 2007 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, many employers said they expect to make significant changes to their health plans and benefits in 2008, with 21 percent of firms saying they are “very likely” to raise workers’ premium contribution this year.
Rather than adopting mandates, Congress should focus on legislation to lower the cost of health insurance and help the uninsured to get insurance.
