New York Times (07/02/92), P. A1
The New York State Legislature is expected to pass a sweeping health
insurance reform measure, after obtaining the reluctant endorsement of
Senate Republicans. The bill would eliminate a proposed rate hike for
over 1.2 million individual and small group customers of Empire Blue
Cross and Blue Shield, the state's largest health insurer. The measure
would also require commercial insurers to provide health coverage to
anyone who applies, no matter how sick, banning them from setting rates
for those customers on the basis of such factors as sex, age, and medical
condition, marking the first time any state has prohibited such rate
discrimination. Under the bill, rates would be set according to the
pooled risks of a much broader group of people; younger, healthier people
will likely see their rates increase. Commercial insurers have attacked
the bill and threatened to leave the small-group market in New York,
contending the new system would sharply limit their profits and price
some small-group customers out of insurance coverage altogether.