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How Much Should Older Americans Pay for Insurance? - Prescriptions ...

by By Michelle Andrews

Should older people pay more for health insurance than younger people, and if so, how much more?

The issue has long been on the radar of health policy analysts and consumer advocates weighing the fairness and affordability of health care costs. But it’s likely to receive more scrutiny now. The health reform “framework” put forward by the Senate Finance Committee’s chairman, Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, proposed a new standard that would permit older people to be charged significantly higher premiums than would be the case under any of the other health care reform bills.

Under Senator Baucus’s plan, insurers would be permitted to charge older people five times more for their health insurance premiums than younger people. That proposal, first circulated in a Finance Committee policy options paper last spring, is a significant departure from the approaches put forth by three House committees and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Those bills would only allow insurers to charge older people twice as much as younger ones.

“A lot turns on whether it’s a 5:1 ratio or a 2:1 ratio,” said Drew Altman, president and C.E.O. of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “It makes a big difference as to whether a 55-year-old worker will be able to afford health insurance.”

According to AARP, the lobbying organization for older Americans, the number of uninsured adults between 50 and 64 grew to 7.1 million in 2007, an increase of 36 percent over 2000. Among the main reasons for the increase: higher premiums demanded of older, sicker people seeking coverage in the individual insurance market.

Currently, people who get health insurance through their employer generally can’t be charged higher premiums because of their age. But in the individual insurance market, “age-rating,” as it’s called, is common, and only eight states place limits on how much more insurers can charge older people, according to a report by the National Women’s Law Center. In all other states, insurers can — and do — charge older policyholders more, though insurance industry representatives say they can’t pinpoint exactly how much more on average.

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