New York is the costliest big city in the country for a healthy single person looking to buy health insurance — and Albany’s policies are largely to blame.
That’s the finding of a new study by the online insurance broker eHealthInsurance.com, based on its review of the most affordable average monthly insurance premium for 30-year-old non-smokers in the nation’s 50 largest cities.
At $334 per month, the premium in New York was easily the highest on the list.
Of course, the high cost of living, working and doing business in New York is hardly a secret. But when it comes to this measure of health insurance costs, the gulf between New York and other cities is truly eye-popping. Consider the table below.
| Health Insurance Costs in Big Cities* | ||||
| The 10 Cheapest Cities | The 10 Most Costly Cities | |||
| Long Beach, CA | $54.00 | New York, NY | $334.09 | |
| Sacramento, CA | $56.00 | Boston, MA | $267.57 | |
| Fresno, CA | $56.00 | Miami, FL | $151.20 | |
| San Diego, CA | $57.00 | Dallas, TX | $146.42 | |
| Columbus, OH | $57.91 | Houston, TX | $146.28 | |
| San Jose, CA | $58.00 | Seattle, WA | $143.00 | |
| San Francisco, CA | $58.00 | San Juan, P.R. | $133.00 | |
| Oakland, CA | $58.00 | Washington, D.C. | $132.00 | |
| Mesa, AZ | $58.74 | Fort Worth, TX | $129.53 | |
| Tucson, AZ | $58.77 | New Orleans, LA | $126.11 | |
| * Most affordable monthly premium quoted for 30-year-old non-smokers, according to survey by eHealthInsurance.com. | ||||
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. 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.
Why the difference? The study points out: “Boston and New York are the only cities within the top 50 with state-mandated guaranteed issue and community rating laws.” As the Public Policy Institute notes on UpstateBlog:
Such laws, which apply throughout New York State, forbid health insurers to “discriminate” 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.
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 eHealthInsurance study provides further evidence of the need for a market-oriented, consumer-driven approach to health care, as described in this previous Empire Center commentary item.
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