Idaho

Health Policy rankings

Health indicators	Rank
Population	1,407,696
Number of insurance mandates	14
Death rate per 100,000	754.7
Percent of adults overweight or obese	58.30%
Percent of adults who have visited a dentist in the last 12 months	67.70%
Percent of births (2004)	22,532

Ranking public policy	Rank
Overall health ownership rank	17
Government health care rank:	29
Private health insurance rank	4
Medical tort rank	19
Provider burden of regulation rank	47

Sources

Policy ranks are from the U.S. Index of Health Ownership, published by the* Pacific Research Institute.
Health indicators are from State Health Facts, a service of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Number of insurance mandates comes from Health Insurance Mandates in the States 2007 (PDF), a publication of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance.

Government offices

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Retire Early? You're (Somewhat) on Your Own in Idaho

By John LaPlante

Categories: Idaho

The State of Idaho has been paying health insurance premiums for early retirees. That's going to change for new employees. People who are already already retired and under 65 will be given premium assistance, but at a capped amount. Everyone 65 and older will be dumped into Medicare.

There are several lessons from this story. One, if there's a government program, expect employers to seize that as an opportunity to shed the load onto the public. It doesn't matter whether the employer is a for-profit company or a unit of state government. Two, unfunded liabilities (both pension but also health care) are serious problems for state and local governments.

posted by John LaPlante
8:04 am
0 comment

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Insurance Mandates Continue to Grow

15 in Idaho, but 64 in Minnesota

By Grace-Marie Turner

Categories: Idaho, Insurance Regulation, Minnesota

The number of state mandated health benefits continues to grow -- to 1,961 nationwide, up from 1,901 last year, according to CAHI's annual list of health insurance mandates (PDF) in each state.

The report contains a chart of the mandates with information broken down by state into three categories: types of mandated benefits, providers, and covered populations.

Mandated benefits currently increase the cost of coverage from a little less than 20% to more than 50%, depending on the state and the specific legislative language. Minnesota leads the states with 64 mandates, while Idaho has the lowest at 15.

Fortunately, there is evidence that some legislators are getting CAHI's message. At least 30 states now require that a mandate's costs be assessed before it is implemented, and at least 10 states provide for mandate-light policies, which allow some individuals to purchase a policy with fewer mandates more tailored to their needs and financial situation. Bunce and Wieske further describe the study in a commentary in the Wall Street Journal.