In New York insurers must offer individual health insurance policies to everyone at the same premium regardless of health status, age, or gender. Because healthier people have been dropping their coverage as premiums increase, premiums for everyone left have gotten higher still. This situation is called “the adverse selection death spiral.”

In Sunday’s New York Times, New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage–a HCFANY partner– Legislative Counsel Mark Scherzer discusses how federal health care reform could help New Yorkers when the new marketplace begins to cover everyone in 201.

He and others also discuss how important it is that the New York State legislature pass legislation requiring all premium increases to be approved in advance by the State Insurance Department to hold down costs to consumers in the meantime.