State Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Northampton, has introduced legislation that would make health insurance more affordable for Pennsylvanians by permitting the State Workers’ Insurance Fund to sell health insurance.
The State Workers' Insurance Fund provides a workers' compensation program for Pennsylvania businesses unable access workers' comp insurance in the private sector. It is only permitted to sell workers' compensation insurance. Freeman's bill would expand its offerings to include health insurance.
"[I]t would make a quality insurance product available to Pennsylvanians at a lower cost than current rates because of its lower administrative overhead, and it would create more competition within the health insurance market," Freeman said. "In addition, by making this available in the market, it would serve as a yardstick by which to measure the fairness of rates charged by private health insurance companies."
Freeman said this would be paid for with premiums to health care subscribers and a loan from the SWIF fund, which would be paid back.
His bill was just introduced yesterday, but has attracted four co-sponsors.
11 comments:
For-profit medicine is no longer viable in the 21st century. It is time for everyone to have healthcare. This was an issue long before Obama came along. In fact it was the impetus for the Obama plan. AS medical treatment becomes more than just an aspirin and a checkup, the private market cannot assure quality healthcare at an affordable cost in this country.
I now agree that we need to make healthcare a right for all US citizens.
SWIF is broke. This idea is a joke.
In most cases, SWIF is more expensive than other options. It is comprised mainly of high risk and 1st time employers providing workers comp. I guess our lawmakers are, at best, uninformed.
"For-profit medicine is no longer viable in the 21st century. It is time for everyone to have healthcare."
And we can all pay for it with bitcoins.
Nice political ploy you slough on my dime.....Useles legislation to make this dirt bag look good for himself. Your as bad as the POS we have representing the Slate Belt "juggling" Joe da "Hoe" Emrick
"... we need to make healthcare a right for all US citizens."
It already is. A guy who shoots a state trooper on 33 gets the same, heroic, life-saving treatment as everyone else, including the trooper. What you really mean is that subsidized health insurance should be a right. Obamacare wasn't healthcare reform. It was insurance reform that was largely written by big donors from Big Insurance. They traded premium prices for volume with lots of off-ramps for when the math didn't work - even as people were forced to buy their product.
SWIF is irreparably broken. Freeman's idea sounds wonderful. So did Obamacare. The math simply doesn't work. Bob was a big supporter of Obamacare. Now, just as career government types always do, he's proposed a government fix to a problem government created and he supported. Bob is a master of circle-jerk government. He's been in a member of the worst legislature in the country for waaaaay too long. He's a poster boy for term limits.
Your statement is untrue. Emergency care is provided without regard to ability to pay, but not other medical care. I had a friend who died from brain cancer who was unable to afford health insurance. Hospitals were unwilling to offer treatments for that reason. They would give him pain medicine. Medical care should be a right. I agree completely with the reader who made that argument. Single payer. That was my main objection to Obamacare.
I thought Bob Freeman was in a coma? Help me understand what it is that he has done, like forever while in office?
The time for universal healthcare is now. The fact that people still think you should let people die, even with the medical ability to treat them based on income is inhumane and frankly, insane.
I would think SWIF would be a bad pool if your presently healthy . It s sort of like Progressive Auto pool for DUIs auto insurance,except Progressive is not broke,and their not cheap. Problem is we are all different ,all a different risk . To lump high risk into pool for that risk benefit is to burden the other rate payers . Life is not fair,and lots of people contribute to their own demise because of what they eat and BMI upside down ,they take pills to counter the other pills and away we go . Bob Freeman work on tax free property exemptions to curtail freeloaders and a lot of blood pressure will come down from the TaxPayers . .
The late, great Bob Freeman has made an appearance. God Bless Bob Freeman.
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