Cigna sticks it to entertainers
Healthcare premiums to soar for entertainers
By Lisa Girion
Los Angeles Times
November 23, 2006
Hundreds of actors, artists, musicians and writers in California are facing massive increases in their health insurance premiums — a situation that could face other consumers who don’t have employer-sponsored health plans, advocates and lawmakers said.
Cigna Corp., which has sold insurance to members of the entertainment industry through their professional associations for 25 years, is raising premiums for actors and others by an average of 82%, with some hikes as high as 254%.
Under the Cigna increases, premiums on its point-of-service plan will rise to $1,022 a month for single members in the Los Angeles area beginning Jan. 1. Family point-of-service coverage would jump to
$2,485 a month.
State Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles), a proponent of single-payer universal coverage, said the entertainers’ plight illustrates the vulnerability of consumers under the current “fragmented” system that is largely based on employment.
“Everyone is at risk now,” she said. “People believe that they are secure because they have a job. But, in an employer-based system, you lose your job, you lose your insurance. And even those who are paying a significant premium on their own have no guarantee this won’t happen to them in terms of their premiums being jacked up to an unaffordable place.”
Insurers disagree, saying that competition remains robust.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insure23nov23,1,5705270,full.story?coll=la-headlines-business
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
A $29,820 annual premium for family coverage!? And we have “robust competition” to thank for this?
This insanity would end if only we would all agree to establish a single risk pool, covering everyone, and fund it equitably. But then there wouldn’t be a place for the robust competitors.