Members of Congress and the Obama administration have assured us that on January 1, 2014, junk health insurance plans — which offer only the illusion of adequate coverage to the millions of Americans enrolled in them — will become a thing of the past.
Among those who clearly don’t believe those plans are headed for extinction are the insurance companies that market these highly profitable plans and the employers that buy them — primarily restaurant chains and retailers with high employee turnover.
If I were President Obama, I would send one of my aides to the Chicago suburbs later this week to see first-hand just how determined these companies are to continue selling these plans — which are euphemistically called “mini-med” and “limited-benefit policies” — long past 2014.
On Wednesday, the third annual Voluntary Benefits and Limited Medical Conference will open at the Marriott Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center, not far from Chicago’s O’Hare airport. In just three years, this conference has grown to be a very big, three-day extravaganza. According to the conference Web site, it will “bring together all the players in the industry, from employers and benefits managers, to insurance agents, consultants, brokers, insurance companies, TPAs (third-party administrators), and enrollment firms.”
All you have to do is spend a few minutes on the Web site to get an understanding of just how much money there is to be made selling inadequate coverage to naive consumers. You’ll see all the big names in the insurance world among the attendees and exhibitors, including the very biggest — Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, CIGNA, Humana and United — as well as dozens of restaurant and fast food chains and other employers of low-wage workers.