Indiana No. 3 in premium surge

Hoosiers have more reasons than most Americans to support health care reform as action gets started in the Senate, perhaps
as early as this week.

Health insurance premium increases in Indiana have risen 136 percent in the last decade,
third-highest among all states.

It’s also three times higher than Hoosier wage increases, which have
run a bit below average in the last 10 years. That means Indiana residents are losing more ground to rising health care costs
than peers across the country.

Those numbers are from government data compiled by the White House in September.
Only Alaska and Oregon have seen larger run-ups in health insurance pricing.

Despite that severe pain,
both of Indiana’s senators have voiced significant reservations about health care reform. Republican Richard Lugar doesn’t
support it at all. And Democrat Evan Bayh says he’s concerned about adding to the deficit.

So what gives?

Reports keep coming out that suggest the bills are unlikely to meet President Obama’s goal of reducing the cost
of health care, even though they will extend health insurance coverage to millions more Americans. For one example, see economist
Robert Samuelson’s take in Newsweek here.

And even left-leaning health insurance consultant Richard Eskow, blogging on Huffington Post,
called the recently passed House bill “deeply flawed.” If passed into law unchanged, he predicts
higher health insurance premiums for the middle class, which he predicts could alienate them from the
Democratic Party. Read Eskow’s blog here.

Also, industries with a major presence in
Indiana—medical devices, pharmaceuticals, health insurers—have turned
against health reform or at least major provisions of it. That would give any politician pause.

One other complicating factor might be the lack of polling data from Indiana.
IUPUI political polling expert Brian Vargus said he knows of only one Indiana-specific survey taken about health
care reform.

That one, from late October, showed Hoosiers supporting reform: 52 percent to
42 percent. But it was commissioned by pro-reform groups in an attempt to pressure Bayh, a Democrat,
to vote for reform. So consider the source.

For Lugar, constituent comments have been overwhelmingly
opposed to the health care bills, running at greater than 10 comments against for every comment in support.
Bayh’s office did not provide a similar ratio.

Of course, constituents can repeatedly make calls
and send letters, exaggerating the true prevalence of their opinion, Vargus noted.