On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 4:22 PM, Mike Miller <mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu>wrote: > > Don't employers get a group rate because they agree that every employee > will be insured? If so, won't the McCain plan undermine group insurance? > Yes it will. But, by the same token, companies are starting to change their insurance policies from traditional group plans to HSA plans. This removes a high overhead on their part. I know of at least one major company here in the Twin Cities to have done it. Others are proposing it now and implementing it in the next year. While it gives freedom to the people on what company they can wish to go with, it has a much deeper impact than just lower rates. Many people are ineligible for individual insurance through private carriers due to pre-existing conditions. Their options are to either go through a group plan such as through a large company (themselves, or their spouse). Or, sign up with a state sanctioned health plan such as MCHA (Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association http://www.mchamn.com ) which offers lesser insurance at a greater price. The benefit is that you can not, or at least aren't supposed to be, denied coverage when all other options are exhausted with private companies. -- -Shawn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20080919/ee700481/attachment.htm