Unintended consequences from health care reform will continue to pop up as health care legislation is rolled out over the next few years. One new problem may have the federal government stepping in to take action soon as a few health insurance companies have decided to stop enrollment for individual health insurance policies for children.
Starting on September 23, 2010, health insurance companies will no longer be able to deny children coverage for pre-existing conditions. This provision of reform was highly touted as one of the greatest benefits but of course, it comes with a price.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida estimated that guaranteeing coverage for children would raise health insurance premiums around 20 percent for children with individual policies according to Yahoo! News. These rises in premiums put health insurers in a predicament — either stop enrollment for individual plans for children or raise other policyholders" premiums.
The Vice President of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, Randy Kammer said, “We were looking at all our other individual policy holders who pay a lot for coverage, and we didn"t think it was fair to give them that kind of an increase to benefit a small population that receives a greater advantage than they do.”
One major problem with the legislation is that many health insurance companies believe that people will buy those policies only when children become sick and then drop the policy.
There is talk about holding an open enrollment period for children once a year to prevent people buying policies only when their children are sick, which would provide insurance companies a better alternative.