Vice President Biden: More regulation for insurers will protect consumers, lower costs

President Biden weighed in on health reform at a meeting of state insurance commissioners Tuesday, saying tighter regulation on insurance companies must protect consumers and slow the rise in costs, The Washington Post reports. Without such changes, Biden said the rapidly escalating cost of care would overwhelm individual, business and government budgets, and said that insurers would absorb the changes because the money they'd lose on the lower rates they could charge would be made up for by a greatly expanded pool of customers.

"Biden said new rules should prevent insurance companies from declining coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, should limit out-of-pocket expenses and should not allow companies to drop coverage for patients who are seriously ill. He also said that insurance plans should fully cover preventive care, and allow no exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays for customers" (Fletcher, 9/22).

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