Health insurance costs more in New York City than in any other big city in the country for a healthy single person, and policies set in Albany are largely to blame, according to a new study by an online insurance broker.
The broker, eHealthinsurance.com, reviewed the costs of average monthly health insurance premiums for 30-year-old non-smokers in the nation’s 50 largest cities. At $334 per month, the premium in New York was highest on the list, well ahead of runner-up Boston ($267.57). Two thirds of the cities had health-insurance plans available for less than $100 a month.
“On an annual basis, for example, the difference between New York and Atlanta (to cite just one Big Apple competitor in the thriving southeast) equates to nearly $3,000,” the Empire Center of the Manhattan Institute said in a story on the report. “Even in Boston, a young worker would pay almost $800 less per year, compared to New York.
“The premium quoted in the third mostly costly big city, Miami, is less than half the New York level,” the story added.
The study blamed the excess cost burden on two factors, health insurance mandates and "community rating,” which forbid all health insurers in the state from distinguishing among insurance purchasers based on healthy lifestyles or other factors.
“In other words, while your auto insurer can vary your premium based on whether you drive dangerously, your health insurer cannot do so based on whether you live dangerously,” according to a commentary on the study on the Public Policy Institute’s Web log on economic-policy issues.
“To top it off, the state mandates that all health insurance policies cover a large array of treatments, conditions and providers. New York imposes 43 health insurance mandates -- among the most of any state and well above the national average. It’s been estimated that these mandates add an average of 12 percent to premium costs,” the blog entry said.
Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation compiled by the Institute as part of its Just the Facts research show that New York has the nation’s third most expensive health-insurance premiums.