Health Insurers Agree to End Higher Premiums for Women
Posted on Wednesday, May 06 @ 08:33:01 CEST by Raulken |
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 Published: May 6, 2009 WASHINGTON — Insurance companies offered Tuesday to end the practice of charging higher premiums to women than to men for the same coverage. Skip to next paragraph The Caucus The latest on President Obama, the new administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion. Karen M. Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, made the offer in testifying before the Senate Finance Committee. It was the latest concession by insurers as Congress drafts legislation to overhaul the $2.5 trillion health care industry. In November, insurers said they would accept all customers, regardless of illness or disability, if Congress required all Americans to have coverage. In March, insurers offered to stop charging higher premiums to sick people. Ms. Ignagni said the industry would accept aggressive federal regulation, but would resist creation of a government-run insurance program of the type proposed by President Obama and many Democrats in Congress. The government-sponsored program would compete with private insurers. Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, told Ms. Ignagni, “The disparity between women and men in the individual insurance market is just plain wrong,...
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