Mass Wake Up Call

Older people shopping for health insurance through the state's new initiative are discovering a sobering reality: Prices for unsubsidized plans are twice as expensive if you're 60 than if you're 27, making insurance unaffordable or barely affordable for many in their later years.

Older people pay more for health insurance.

Do you think it might be because they use it more often?

Massachusetts has long allowed age-based pricing of private health insurance plans, but the new requirement that all adults have insurance combined with the new ability to compare plans on the Internet is leading to a mini- revolt.

"That is discrimination," said Evelyn Hartrey, a 60-year-old who found that the least-expensive plan would cost her $352 a month, while a 27-year-old would pay $176 for the same coverage.

And so the answer would be what? Charge everyone the same rate, regardless of age?

Wouldn't that be discrimination too?

Health insurance isn't an all you can eat buffet.

National studies show that people age 50 to 64 typically spend more money for healthcare than younger people.

And this is why health care PREMIUMS are higher.

Why is this so hard to grasp?

Ironically, the Massachusetts law allowing insurers to charge older people twice as much as younger people is designed to protect consumers from even larger price gaps.

This is an irony? In what way?

Although some states allow insurers to deny people insurance because of preexisting conditions or charge individuals more because they are sick, Massachusetts does not.

So healthy people pay the same as sick people.

Sounds like discrimination to me.