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Health Reimbursement Arrangement has potential to reduce costs. (Focus Insurance & Employee Benefits).

Article Excerpt
As every employer in the state knows, health insurance is getting more expensive all the time.

"In the past two years we haven't seen anything lower than 20%-plus renewal increases and many of them have been higher than that coming from Blue Cross and other the carriers left in the state," said David White, chief executive officer, MorganWhite Group, Jackson. "My contention is we don't have enough competition in the marketplace in Mississippi, and it is our own fault. Our state is known as being a state that is sue happy. Here is what happens. Mississippi is less than 1% of the total insurance premium in the U.S. So if you're the president of a big insurance company in New York or Chicago, and every time you pick up a newspaper you see a $100-million award in Mississippi, you say, 'Let's get out of Mississippi. There is too much risk.'"

"People in Mississippi say we aren't much worse than other places. But we can't just be not worse than others. We have to be better because our percentage of the total premium is so small. If we aren't better, any major corporation can pull out of the state and never miss us. That is the...

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