ANALYSIS: Insurers's bait and switch

Former California Insurance Commissioner and now Congressman John Garamendi saw this coming several years ago and did his best to halt the growth of high-deductible plans, but he had no real power to do so. He told reporters in 2005, while still serving as insurance commissioner, that high-deductible plans would eventually result in a "death spiral" for HMOs and PPOs. This would happen, he predicted, as insurers and employers initially cherry-picked the youngest, healthiest and richest customers while forcing managed care plans to charge more to cover the sickest patients.