The pros and cons of universal health care have long been debated and there is no real consensus over whether the long terms effects will be positive or negative. How health insurance programs will be affected is also unknown. The goal of the government is to assure that health care is affordable and available. However, the general population wants to retain the competition and high quality of medical care. With this two competing interests, there is no way to be certain what the long terms effects of universal health care will be.

Universal health care will cause many changes in the way insurance companies set their rates and there are a number of factors that may cause rate increases. In addition to the probability in changes in rates, the reforms will also cause the formation of insurance pools accessible by all and heavily regulated. These pools will have to co-exist with the private insurance companies which will held to the standard of care set by the reforms which include preventative care and other requirements.

One of the goals of universal health care will be to make healthy life styles and prevention more readily available and affordable. The health care changes will require health insurance programs to cover certain preventative services which may have been optional under previous plans. There are also limitations rescinding coverage or denial of coverage for high risk or chronic conditions. In addition, the cost of processing claims may go up as there will be more claims filed and they will be for smaller amounts. These additional requirements mandated by the health care reforms may result in rate increases by the health insurance companies in order to continue to extend this coverage.

On the other hand, there some factors that may act to offset the increased risk to the insurance companies. Because the government will be providing subsidies to low income families to make sure they can afford coverage, the universal insurances programs should bring in a whole new set of customers which should have the effect of increasing the volume and seemingly the income of insurance companies. In addition, to counteract the rising number of claims being filed there will be the continued modernization of medical records which may make the filing quicker and easier.

The universal health care is still in its beginning stages. Meanwhile, the health insurance companies will be setting health insurance rates and providing coverage with the information they have available at the time as well as projection of the long term effects. The long term effects of universal health care remain on rates and quality of care remain to be seen.