Insurers Get the Blame for Health Costs and TAFP CEO Banning Gets Quoted in H Chron Commentary

Houston Chronicle columnist Clay Robison reported that health insurers topped the list of those to blame for the high cost of health care in a recent public opinion poll by pollster Bryan Eppstein. Coming in a close second was drug companies.

Robison went on to report that Texas ranks third in the nation when it comes to how much health insurance premiums have risen in recent years. He noted that while the Texas Department of Insurance doesn't have much power to regulate insurers, the Lege could do something about it during the department's impending sunset review.

"Expect a big fight, with doctors and insurers, former allies in the so-called 'tort reform' coalition, squaring off against each other," Robison wrote. "Small-business owners, another important part of the tort army, probably will jump in with the doctors."

To illustrate the rate increases with which employers and individuals have become all too familiar, Robison recounted TAFP's recent renewal shocker, when the Academy was slapped with a 23.5-percent hike in its premium quote for 2008. "Tom Banning, the academy's CEO, said frustration worsened when administrators learned that only 74 percent of premiums they had paid to the former insurer had been spent on medical care."