Health Insurance

Cutting health-care costs has become something of a national obsession. And rightly so, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the United States spent almost 1.7 trillion on health care in 2003, accounting for 15.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

Government agencies and insurance companies have concocted several strategies to stall rising costs—HSAs, consumer-driven health care and Medicaid cuts—which is why recent efforts by some states to widen insurance coverage is receiving push back from businesses and insurance companies.

Recently, the mental health insurance bill or mental health parity has been the unlikely star in the Ohio and New Jersey senates. The measure would provide equal health-care coverage for some mental illnesses, which goes against the trend of cutting health-insurance benefits in an effort to cut costs. But it seems the pendulum is swinging away from cost-costing maneuvers, at least on this particular point, as more people are speaking out for the issue.