Insurance Space

Sixty-five years after President Truman proposed a national health care program and 17 years after President Clinton’s failed attempt to radically alter health care financing, President Obama, with the help of a Democratic Congress, finally passed a compromise bill that is clearly an improvement over the old system. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the plan will save more than a trillion dollars during the next 20 years by increasing the pool of insured persons, and it will clearly greatly benefit poor and minority Americans who are currently uninsured. Of course, there is a real possibility of repeal, especially if the Democratic Party loses large numbers of seats in the mid-term elections. Several states have already mounted legal challenges to the legislation on constitutional grounds and states may succeed in imposing barriers to implementation. Most likely, though, the health care landscape of the country has changed for good and probably for the better.

The state Division of Insurance has rejected a majority of insurers’ proposed health-premium increases for small businesses, sending a message that Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration is going to play hardball with the insurance industry over rate hikes that have reached 50 percent for some small businesses.

The move is a rare rebuke for the state’s insurers, as past rate hikes have essentially been rubber stamped by state regulators.

Last month, Harvard Pilgrim Care Plan officials told the BBJ they would be filing base-rate increases for small businesses of between 8.3 percent and 11.7 percent, while Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts said its small business rate increases, on average, would be in the mid-teens.

Businesses will feel the effects of the health-care overhaul this year as a tax on indoor tanning salons goes into effect in July and insurers by September must allow children younger than age 26 to stay on their parents’ insurance.

Under the law signed yesterday by President Barack Obama, insurance companies will be banned in six months from denying coverage to children with pre-existing medical conditions. Medicare recipients will also receive a $250 rebate for prescription drugs when they reach a coverage gap called the doughnut hole if the Senate passes and the president signs companion legislation approved March 21 by the U.S. House.

Senate Republicans attacked one of the federal health care bill’s most controversial parts Monday, passing a ban on insurance coverage for abortions out of a Senate committee.

Missouri has banned women from getting health insurance for abortions for more than two decades, with the exception of an abortion to protect the mother’s life.

“The federal bill threatens Missouri’s long-standing laws against funding abortion, and would compel taxpayers to fund abortions for the first time in American history,” said Sen. Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville, the bill’s sponsor.

The Senate Small Business Committee passed the bill, 5-1, despite opposition from Planned Parenthood representative Michelle Trupiano.

In the coming days, the House and Senate will take a critical up-or-down vote on historic health insurance reforms. Tied to them will be the most significant reform of our federal student loan program in a generation. It will make college aid more effective and cost-efficient for families and taxpayers without increasing the deficit. Congress should support both measures.

The case for fixing today’s backward student loan system is simple: According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government is wasting $67 billion on subsidies to banks. President Obama and lawmakers, including some Republicans, believe these dollars could be better spent directly helping families pay for college.

Nearly 1 in 4 Californians under age 65 had no health insurance last year, according to a new report, as soaring unemployment propelled vast numbers of once-covered workers into the ranks of the uninsured.

The state’s uninsured population jumped to 8.2 million in 2009, up from 6.4 million in 2007, marking the highest number over the last decade, investigators from UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research said.

People who were uninsured for part or all of 2009 accounted for 24.3% of California’s population under age 65 — a dramatic increase from 2007 driven largely by Californians who lost employer-sponsored health insurance, particularly over the last year.

Recently, health insurance companies have become an attractive target with supporters of reform focusing on insurers imposing sharp rate increases for individual insurance.

Advocates of the Democrats’ proposed legislation, from small level organizers to President Barack Obama, point towards the increase in rates for individuals. A pending 24% increase from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield for its renowned Wisconsin plans is a sure proof of a broken system.

But, health economists are of the view that insurance companies can in no way be blamed for high health care costs.

Earlier this week, President Obama addressed a crowd of gushing students and selected guests at Arcadia University in a suburb of Philadelphia to promote his final push for healthcare reform. It was a beautiful day for late winter, magnifying the gathered group’s existing enthusiasm and after the usual “I/we love you(s)” from the crowd the President wasted little time before turning to his usual tones of demagoguery.

A moment or two into the speech, the President characteristically accused the Insurance Companies of arbitrarily causing the extra inflationary costs of healthcare coverage and for other ills of our healthcare system:

Virginia lawmakers have passed legislation that aims to thwart any federal requirement that individuals buy health insurance. At least 29 statehouses are considering similar so-called Health Care Freedom Acts, but Virginia is the first to approve the bill. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, is expected to sign it.

The state House of Delegates passed the bill in an 80-17 vote. The Senate previously passed the bill in a vote of 23-17.

The bill states that “no law shall impose a penalty, tax or fine upon an individual who declines to contract for healthcare coverage or to participate in a healthcare system or plan.”

A bill that would require health plans to submit their rate increases to government regulators before they take effect is gaining momentum in Congress.

The Health Insurance Rate Authority Act of 2010 was introduced this week by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., to give Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius “the authority to deny or modify premium and rate increases found to be unreasonable.”

It’s the latest salvo in a push by Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration to make insurance companies justify their rate increases. The act could become its own law or woven into health care reform bills President Barack Obama is hoping to see passed later this month.