No, Mitt, you can’t fire your insurance company

Mitt Romney’s comment ” I like to be able to fire people” has been turned against him by his GOP Presidential candidate opponents, with Gingrich and Rick Perry (remember him?) using it to illustrate Romney’s “out of touchiness” with regular Americans.
Of course they’re taking it way out of context. All who try to beat Romney will – a time-tested way to win is to use your opponent’s words against her/him; if he makes it thru as the GOP Presidential candidate, expect the Dems to feature that prominently in key states.
But there’s a deeper message here – yes, Mitt is out of touch – but no, not for the reasons cited by his opponents.
Romney clearly doesn’t understand that most of us can’t fire our insurance companies. A piece in the Columbia Journalism Review makes this point: Can you really fire your insurance company? The answer is that it’s darn difficult even in Massachusetts–the land of Romneycare.
For those covered by large employer or union plans, what you’ve got is what you’ve got – and if we don’t like it that’s too bad. Of course, many large employers offer several choices, so these folks have better options than those of us who don’t work for large employers – which happens to be most of us.
If your coverage is thru a small employer, your selection is most likely limited to one plan. While your employer probably shops the plan every few years, the only one who can “fire” his/her insurer is the employer. And that supposes the insurer doesn’t fire the employer first by raising rates to the point where the employer has to move to another health plan.
Those of us (that includes your faithful scribe) who get their coverage thru the individual market face even more limited choices (depending on where you live). If your health status changes while insured, it will be very tough for you to get a new insurer to take you on – and if they do, expect to pay a lot more for a plan that doesn’t cover your pre-existing conditions for some period of time (how long that period lasts depends on your state).
The net? While we’d all love to be able to fire our insurance company, most of us can’t.
And under Mitt’s health reform plan (such as it is), your ability to get coverage would be even more limited.
Of course, Mitt may have been paying a compliment to his potential opponent in the fall Presidential race – under PPACA (health reform), individuals can fire their insurance company, small employers may well have more choice (and the cost of that insurance will be less for many employers).
What does this mean for you?
Mitt is definitely out of touch – we can’t fire our insurance companies, but they sure can fire us.
There’s lots more detail on Federal limits on pre-ex here.