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Insurance for your health insurance?

Posted by: Julia Eisman on Dec 04, 2008

At first, we thought it was a story from The Onion, thatparagon of parody. But no, this was the venerable New York Times, telling usthat one insurance company, UnitedHealth Group, was planning to offer a newproduct: an insurance policy covering your right to buy insurance.

Honestly, we couldn't make this stuff up.

As the President of UnitedHealth explains, "What thisproduct is designed to do, for a very modest premium, is to essentially protectyour insurability for the future."

To be clear, the product is not health insurance. It's morelike a bribe. You'd be paying the insurance company now - 20 percent of theannual premium, at that - just for the right to purchase their policy later, ifyou lost your job or retired early, for example.

Sound like a great deal? Well, no. But it's actually evenworse than it sounds at first. If you're sick and need to be sure you havecoverage, you probably can't buy this plan. And if you're healthy enough to buyit, but get sick later, you may not be able to afford it when you need it.

This is coming at an interesting time, when both ends of Pennsylvania Avenueare buzzing with talk of comprehensive health care reform that would include abroad expansion of health coverage. So the fact that UnitedHealth is offeringthis product inherently implies that they are bettingagainst reform - and they're asking consumers to do the same.

Some advocates for changing the health insurance system say that rather than expecting individuals to spend hundreds of dollars a year for a guarantee they may not need, the government should do more to make sure everyone has access to coverage.

In an economy where it's hard enough to afford risingpremiums, is it really fair to entice consumers with product that capitalizeson people's fear of losing their health coverage some time in the future?  Doesn't seem like it. Especially when theprospects of reform look so good that even the health insurance lobby wants a seat atthe table.