Web Beat: Short Sharp Science and NYT op-ed blog

This week's entry are re-posts from blogs I found interesting. Follow the links to view the original posts.

------------------
After clicking on the link below and reading the New Scientist's blog, scroll down to check out the comments.

Socialised medicine and death panels: business as usual - Short Sharp Science - New Scientist
Shared via AddThis





--------------
August 18, 2009, 11:45 pm
From State to State, Many Choices to Few
By Anne Underwood

The debate over whether the government should offer a public insurance plan is all about competition. How competitive is the private insurance market right now? It depends on where you live.

As a general rule, the larger, more densely populated states have the most choice — and even the biggest insurer controls only a minority share of the market. According to statistics from the American Medical Association, the leading insurance provider in California covers 24 percent of the population, while in New York the figure is 26 percent and in Florida, 30 percent.


But there are nine states where a single insurer covers 70 percent or more of the people. In Hawaii, one insurer covers 78 percent. In Alabama, it is 83 percent. And in at least 17 other states one insurer covers at least half the population.


Some members of the Senate Finance Committee, which is taking a lead on health care legislation, come from states where the insurance market is highly concentrated. The chairman, Max Baucus, is from Montana, where 75 percent of people are covered by one major insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana. For Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, the figure is 71 percent, by Wellmark. For Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, it is 78 percent, by WellPoint.

“For many Americans, the idea that they have a choice of health plans is about as mythical as unicorns,” said Jacob S. Hacker, a professor of political science at Yale.

But Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the industry trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, argues that competition abounds. “In the top 40 metropolitan areas, there are eight or more health plans in every one of them,” he said.