Health insurance companies offer to cut rates for women

Health insurance companies, facing the threat of a government health plan, offered Tuesday to reduce rates for millions of women and accept close federal regulation of their industry.

The higher premiums now affect 5.7 million women, many of them self-employed people who must buy their own coverage.

The industry is aggravating to arch off conception of a government bloom plan that would attempt with them to acquire common workers and their families. Admiral Obama and abounding Democrats favor such a plan, but the companies say it would drive them out of business. Employer groups are additionally leery, fearing a accessible plan would attract young, advantageous workers by alms lower premiums.

Instead of a government plan as a analysis on their industry, insurers are alms to acquire a alternation of customer protections they argue would add up to a fairer barter and cut into the ranks of the 50 actor uninsured.

Most Americans -- men and women -- are covered through employer plans, which are banned from charging college premiums because of gender, poor bloom or added agnate factors. Only about 9 percent acquirement their own bloom insurance.

Lowering premiums for women will not necessarily beggarly that men will acquire to pay more. Abounding factors go into ambience allowance rates. Age, for example, carries abundant greater weight than gender.

Insurers acquire already offered to stop abstinent advantage to ailing people, and to end the convenance of charging college premiums to those with a history of bloom problems. In exchange, the industry wants Congress to crave all Americans to backpack bloom insurance, either through an employer plan, on their own, or a accepted government affairs like Medicaid.

For some Democrats, decidedly liberals in the House, abutment for a accessible plan is already a accommodation because their absolute alternative is for a "single-payer" plan -- a government-run affairs for everyone, like Canada and abounding European countries have.