Health Care Group Blasts Industry
07/23/08
From MSNBC's Alex Wall:
On Ohio’s healthcare woes: Kirsch went on to illustrate the discrepancies between increases in wages and health care costs for Ohioans. According to Kirsch, family health insurance premiums for Ohio’s workers rose 8.4 times more quickly than workers’ paychecks between 2000 and 2006. He then argued that, “[we] can’t count on the health insurance companies to fix this mess”, citing that between 2003 and 2007, Community Health Insurance’s (the Ohio subsidiary of WellPoint) profits more than doubled.
Kirsch criticized the Ohio State Legislature for “not doing much to protect Ohioans’ healthcare.” According to Kirsch, the health insurance industry is “free to reject who they want” and charges unfairly based on risk. “If you’re older you get charged more,” Kirsch said. “If you’re a woman you get charged more.”
