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Healthcare

  • Baby Steps Toward Universal Healthcare . . . NC Health Choice and NC Kids’ Care

    Posted in Healthcare by Jameson Taylor on June 1, 2007

    The good news in both the Senate and House budgets is that the expansion of NC Health Choice is again limited to 6 percent a year. The bad news is that legislators want to create a new program – NC Kids’ Care – that would expand taxpayer-subsidized insurance for kids from families earning up to either 225 percent or 300 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Currently, 225 percent of FPL for a family of four is $46,463; while 300 percent is $61,950.

  • Coverage Mandates: Is Mental Health Next?

    Posted in Healthcare on May 15, 2007

    A coverage mandate is a legal requirement that dictates that all health insurance policies sold in North Carolina cover certain services, providers, and groups of people. Mandates are the result of laws passed by the General Assembly as a means of regulating the insurance market. Insurance buyers pay for coverage mandates through higher insurance premiums. While some mandates do not affect the price of insurance by very much, others are more costly. North Carolina has 46 mandates, which together have increased the price of health insurance an estimated 41 percent.

  • Coverage Mandates: Questions and Options

    Posted in Healthcare on March 28, 2007

    A coverage mandate is a legal requirement that dictates that all health insurance policies sold in North Carolina cover certain services, providers, and groups of people. Mandates are the result of laws passed by the General Assembly as a means of regulating the insurance market. Insurance buyers pay for coverage mandates through higher insurance premiums. While some mandates do not affect the price of insurance by very much, others are more costly. North Carolina has 46 mandates, which together have increased the price of health insurance an estimated 29 percent.

  • The Numbers Aren’t Adding Up: A High-Risk Pool for North Carolina

    Posted in Healthcare by Sven Larson on March 7, 2007

    House Bill 265, sponsored by Representatives Verla Insko (D-Orange), Hugh Holliman (D-Davidson), Bob England (D-Rutherford) and Alice Underhill (D-Craven), would create a state-sponsored high-risk pool (HRP) for people with serious health conditions that make it difficult to purchase health insurance on the open market. In order to be eligible for the pool a person must not only have a health condition that is difficult to insure, but also be unable to purchase a plan that is below 175 percent of the prevailing market cost. While 34 other states have high-risk pools, the legislation currently being considered differs from many of these plans and could prove very costly to North Carolina taxpayers, as well as the people who enroll in the HRP.

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