Utah health insurers believe that if there were a simple fix to the problems of affordable health care, the United States would have found it by now. We can assure the public and The Tribune that insurers are in the game, our cleats are on, our bats at ready, and there are still innings left in the game.

Utah health insurance companies, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, have the lowest health insurance premiums in the nation. In addition, Utah costs for health care, in comparison to other industrial nations in the world where health care is socialized, are slightly below average and yet the quality of that Utah care exceeds other nations.

Utah insurance companies are working to modify the system without adding costs or increasing the number of uninsured. Utah health insurance companies are attempting to do something which is yet to be accomplished in this nation: meaningful, enduring, reform which can be sustained.

To date, two proposals have been suggested to reform health care in Utah. The first proposal would cost taxpayers $200 million in health-care subsidies to the working poor and mandate every Utahn purchase health insurance. We agree with the need for more Utahns to have coverage, but given the present financial crisis faced by our state it is not realistic to ask the Legislature to raise taxes and mandate coverage.

The second proposal suggests that a Web site be created where Utah consumers can compare and purchase health insurance on their own rather than through their employer. Employers would give employees a medical health insurance voucher representing a set dollar amount to purchase health insurance.

While this would accomplish the purpose of fixing the cost of health insurance expenditures for Utah employers, it would not address the rising costs of health care for Utah consumers.

Unlike the two proposals presented, health insurers understand that simply asking government for more money to fix the problem or shifting the responsibility to pay for insurance to Utah consumers does not solve the underlying problem of increasing costs.

Our focus has been on cost. It has been on creating price and quality transparency so that people can begin to make informed consumer decisions, finding ways to encourage and incentivize health and wellness, rethinking our misaligned reimbursement system that rewards activity rather than value, reducing the significant costs of defensive medicine, and developing new, less expensive plan designs to supplement our already broad product offerings.

We are in the game, and our focus will remain on reducing costs as the only meaningful way to reform health care for the good of all Utahns.

---

* KELLY ATKINSON is executive director of the Utah Health Insurance Association.