Rapidly snowballing costs in the face of modern healthcare is the greatest single issue that health insurance companies have to contend with. In addition to expensive new technologies and procedures, frivolous lawsuits, obscene drug pricing, and a large population of aging baby-boomers challenge healthcare providers to evolve and produce more flexible and affordable products for a demanding public. Indemnity insurers are criticized for being too expensive for the average person, while HMO's are accused of providing care which is compromised by excessive cost-cutting policies.
In order to move healthcare forward in the 21st century, and provide healthcare that is more affordable and accessible to all Americans, state and federal governments have proposed various legislations to protect patients and keep necessary services in the communities that need them. Medical liability reform is needed to protect physicians from being forced out of medicine from malpractice insurance premiums that are too expensive to pay. The expansion of Medicare to include prescription drug benefits, and the issue of accurately monitoring drug interactions through drug utilization reviews, present no easy solution for when people are taking so many expensive prescriptions in a way never seen before. In addition, universal health coverage continues to be a hot subject of legislative debate as lawmakers look for ways to help insurers in providing affordable coverage.
