Hawaii Insurance

New Insurance Act that the elderly and sicker receive medical care affordable, are expected to accelerate a shakeout to $ 108 billion of commercial insurance industry.

The recently adopted law, adopted in New York this month, requires insurers to accept any person or company is small, and charge the same sentence, regardless of age, gender and health status of history. Vermont, Maine and Oregon have recently approved less stringent versions of this approach and Hawaii has long been a similar system. Other countries are facing such proposals.

Many insurers believe that the laws of the State to impose some enterprises, especially with limited resources, small or large, with only a small number of customers in the state. These companies have in the past, insofar as “Cherry bring” the healthiest candidates and their coverage at a lower price, so that the elderly and sicker customers to other insurers or without cover. Now that all must accept the increase, these insurers must increase their prices, and much younger, more healthy for our customers may decide to drop their policy.

With insurers small number of customers likely to be injured by a much greater assurance of someone with an expensive disease like cancer. More insurers are not only a risk more and more customers, they also benefit from economies of scale in the hotel.

No company has left New York, where the new law are not valid until April 1993. But Aetna Casualty and life, for example, to stop selling to small employers in Vermont, where he had only these few customers. And Chris Petersen, Senior Counsel for the Health Insurance Association of America, a trade group with 300 members, 80 percent of enterprises, he predicted less than commercial insurers in New York.

New York under the law of the state is now issuing the approval rate for commercial insurers, it is still too early to know how to increase insurance rates and how they react.

But Mr. Petersen said the law would mean higher prices for more than half of 500000 in New York, individuals and small groups of commercial insurance coverage and that 165000 of them might decide to fall on their reports.

Emily Crandall, a vice-chairman of the Guardian Life Insurance Company, with about 100000 people in New York is one of the biggest insurers public small groups, said that his company has not yet decided if the stay in New York, where it is 20 per cent of its clients. “We are not utilities,” she said. “We have a business-to-run”.

The man, work for large employers, as a general rule itself and use to ensure insurance companies only as a manager, are not affected by the state. And most health maintenance already accept all applicants and candidates for uniform rates of the state without laws.

Unlike New York, 33 states have increased limits for customers with costly illnesses. Most major commercial insurers say they can live with the limits.

The new laws of the State are only the latest problem for smaller insurance companies. They are also more large companies lose insurer can he afford to organize “Managed Care-networks”, that doctors and hospitals with an eye on limiting health care costs rise. Reduces rising medical costs , As some companies in the health, insurance businesses complete, others prefer from certain countries and have more insurance against individuals or small groups.

“Small businesses are history,” said Kenneth S. Abramowitz, a health care analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “They have no purchasing power” to influence, hospitals and doctors. He predicted that 50 insurance companies and 400 organizations of health care, control of health care in 15 years, compared with 300 companies and 550 HMO’s this, most companies.

Analysts said that the new laws has not yet had a noticeable impact on the outcome. Most insurance companies have a number of sectors, among others, a life and non-life insurance and accident and health insurance. Insurance stocks were buoyed recently by the general economic trends, including lower interest rates according to Denis Callaghan, Alex.