For Immediate Release                May 21, 2009
CONTACT: Gary Zuckett, WV Citizen Action              304-346-5891

NEW REPORT DETAILS LACK of COMPETITION IN WV HEALTH INSURANCE MARKET
Public Insurance Option Seen as Remedy

Charleston, WV - Today, West Virginia’s Health Care for America Now Campaign released a new report showing how a lack of real competition in the state’s health insurance market is causing skyrocketing premiums for both patients and employers.      The report is available at: www.wvcag.org/issues/healthcare/05_2009_wv_insurance_report.pdf

The report shows how a handful of private health insurance companies have built a near-monopoly in the state’s market, burdening families and businesses with premiums that grew FOUR times faster than wages from 2000 to 2007. West Virginia’s two largest health insurers control a 54% share of the market. The U.S. Justice Department rates the WV market as “concentrated.” Local markets are even worse with 3 out of 4 local markets rated as “highly concentrated.”

“Unchecked consolidation of health insurance markets is well documented,” commented Alex Lawson, Health Care Researcher for the Institute for America's Future and co-author of the HCAN report, “Such concentration of market share lets big companies dictate rates to increase profits. Coventry, the largest insurer in West Virginia reported a 926% increase in profits from 2000-2007.”

“This report makes the case for a public health insurance option – something I strongly support,” said Senator Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, who spearheaded a letter with sixteen Senators detailing the need for a public health option in health care reform, “We need to provide quality, affordable coverage for the millions of Americans the insurance industry has failed - a public option is the only reliable way to do just that.  As this important report states, competition between public health insurance plans and private plans allows people to get a better product, price and end result. A public option must be on the table if we are going to deliver real, transformative health care reform to the American people.”

“As health insurance costs rose at four times faster than wages in the last seven years, it reduces workers ability to live health lives and decreases longevity, added Larry Matheney, Sec. Treas. of WV-AFL-CIO, “A Public Insurance option would make real reform work.”

"Social Workers believe that the solution for the health insurance access problem must include a national public insurance option because the current for-profit system has failed to cover everyone,“ commented Elena Bailey with the WV chapter of NASW, “Having health insurance has become a human necessity - the lack of which is a growing cause of economic ruin among American families. "

Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is a national grassroots campaign of more than 1000 organizations dedicated to winning quality, affordable health care we all can count on in 2009. Its principles for reform are supported by President Obama and more than 190 Members of Congress.