USA Today Quotes John Hickman on Individual Health Insurance Coverage

The January 23rd USA Today article titled, “Employers put health coverage in workers’ hands” discusses the controversial new health insurance model that some employers are adopting. In the new approach, employers cut costs by ending group coverage and providing employees with a monthly stipend to purchase individual coverage. John Hickman noted a problem with the new trend, “What scares me is it’s tempting for an employer who may have one or two sick employees to say, ‘You’re not my problem, try to get coverage from the state,’” He added that, “It would leave a lot of people without coverage.” Hickman also noted that Congress would need to pass national rules that would require insurers to offer insurance to everyone, regardless of their health, for the new model to work.