http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00106 from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:47:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/00106#comment-3332 Papau Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:14:40 +0000 http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/?p=106#comment-3332 Hawaii has mandated employer-provided health care since 1974, with Hawaii’s businesses paying the highest percentage of employee health insurance premiums in the country because the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act (PHCA) requires almost all Hawaii employers to provide health insurance to employees who work 20 hours or more for four consecutive weeks with an employee’s contribution to health insurance coverage not exceeding 1.5 percent of wages. The result is a per-capita total health cost that is 60% of the US average – about the same as the rest of the world, with a lower than the national average uninsured rate. The new “universal program” was for children only and was stopped due to budget concerns, leaving intact the great coverage and low cost that comes from mandatory affordable employer provision of coverage. The insurance companies 31% overhead has to end and will only end via a public option and an affordable mandate – either via subsidy as in the Senate Bill or via mandatory employer contribution as in Hawaii. Please contact an actuary – I am a retired actuary – before you write your next piece on insurance. Hawaii has mandated employer-provided health care since 1974, with Hawaii’s businesses paying the highest percentage of employee health insurance premiums in the country because the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act (PHCA) requires almost all Hawaii employers to provide health insurance to employees who work 20 hours or more for four consecutive weeks with an employee’s contribution to health insurance coverage not exceeding 1.5 percent of wages. The result is a per-capita total health cost that is 60% of the US average – about the same as the rest of the world, with a lower than the national average uninsured rate. The new “universal program” was for children only and was stopped due to budget concerns, leaving intact the great coverage and low cost that comes from mandatory affordable employer provision of coverage. The insurance companies 31% overhead has to end and will only end via a public option and an affordable mandate – either via subsidy as in the Senate Bill or via mandatory employer contribution as in Hawaii. Please contact an actuary – I am a retired actuary – before you write your next piece on insurance.

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