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Physician, Heal Thyself

A quote from 'Business Insurance,' Aug. 9, 1993, on a doctors' practice that couldn't get health insurance.

By George Gendron | 
 

"Affordable health insurance for small businesses is a critical component to national health-care reform. And managed-competition proponent Paul Ellwood and his colleagues in the Jackson Hole Group, which formally employs nine staffers, now know firsthand how difficult it is for small employers to get insurance.

"'One of our employees is an Irish physician who arrived on the scene pregnant. We tried to get insurance, and we couldn't get it,' Dr. Ellwood told a recent gathering of HMO executives in Michigan. 'We found out having a baby in Jackson, Wyo., was going to cost $7,500. Furthermore, we couldn't even get insurance if she had complications in connection with this pregnancy.'

"The mother-to-be is on leave and is back in Dublin to deliver her baby.

"'So even the great Jackson Hole Group couldn't get decent insurance for a small group of employees,' Dr. Ellwood said with a grin."

-- From Business Insurance, August 9, 1993, as reported by Christine Woolsey

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