Your discussion of health care was missing the key issue. Single payer health care. Everyone had a different reason for the rising costs yet none of them spoke of the (ahem) elephant in the room. For profit health care. Remove the profit, save the world.

The representative that you chose perfectly made the case for why we are in the mess we are in. Each time he spoke my husband and I looked at each other and asked, "Did you get anything out of that?" No. He hemmed and hawed and mumbled talking points, no substance at all. The two people who actually had some experience with health care were the only two who added anything to the discussion.

Why no advocate for single payer? It is coming, and the dinosaurs who try to stand in it's way are slowly turning into tar.

Posted by Deborah Jenrich, Friday October 5th, 2007 @ 9:13 pm

You, the panel on the show in your $500 dollars suits, know nothing of what it is like to be newly married, have a premature baby and then get a bill for $65,000 dollars. Well because I was actually a productive member of society and had tried so have something, I could not receive any help like so many of the other parents there in the newborn intensive care. One couple had a bill of $500,000 paid for them by the state. So I paid the bill. The strain of this cause my marriage to fail eventually. I have lost everything. Thank you IHC, the organization gifted into existence with tithing dollars. Let's hear some more about private markets in operation....

Posted by s s, Sunday October 7th, 2007 @ 12:10 pm

I'm a licensed life, health and disability insurance agent in our great state, and I'm disgusted at the way our major health insurance carriers can just "decline" coverage on applicants. As if our problem of uninsured residents of Utah who can't afford the sky high premiums wasn't enough, there's a huge contingent of our populous who can afford the premiums, but can't get insured because they have a hangnail.

Please answer me this question: why is there legislation in Utah that forces these companies to accept ANY risk on a group plan (and a group plan can be any company of 2 or more), but there's no legislation that forces these same companies to accept a private individual?

This is wrong and something needs to be done about it. These companies, Regence BlueCross, Altius & Select Med from IHC need to be forced to take these private individuals. No one should be denied coverage who wants it.

I have a few small groups insured and an employee could be in a wheelchair, with Parkinson's disease and on an oxygen respirator, and they would be added to the company's plan and given insurance without any extra premium beyond the groups listed rates, but a perfectly healthy family who had a premature child three years ago and has had no other health issues before of since gets turned down because the insurance companies don't like the risk? This ought not to be.

The insurers feel justified because of the HIPUtah plan that the state offers. What they tell you is - "This applicant doesn't meet our risk profile". What they really mean is - "If we decline all of the applicants who have any health issues whatsoever and make them take the only solution option left, the HIPUtah plan - we can make more PROFIT and pass the expense off to the Utah taxpayer."

This is not the solution!

Posted by Jon Christopher , Tuesday October 30th, 2007 @ 12:22 am