Health Reform Hub Issues

Issues :: Private Health Insurance

Patients' Choices May Narrow as Insurers Adjust Standards for Doctors, Hospitals
Bruce Japsen

Chicago Tribune, 9/4/10

The new federal health care law is bringing additional demands by insurance companies that doctors and hospitals be held to higher quality standards. While this push by insurers on quality implies that consumers will get better care because doctors and hospitals will be measured against the best performers, there may be an unintended consequence: It could leave patients with fewer choices of medical care providers, depending on which health plans they purchase. Read more...

The First Victims of Health Care Reform
Kate Pickert

Time, 8/26/10

As Democrats on the campaign trail do their best to drum up support for health care reform by touting the benefits that take effect this year, it's easy to forget that the full thrust of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act doesn't kick in until 2014. But by then, a few major players in the health care industry might have already experienced a real downside of the massive overhaul, so much so that they may no longer exist. Insurance agents and brokers and small insurance companies are among those who may have to scramble to stay afloat over the next few years. This is partly by design and partly an unintended consequence of a new law that is so sweeping, it will affect nearly every corner of an industry that accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Read more...

Obamacare Puts Government Run Monopoly on Fast Track
Grace-Marie Turner

The Detroit News, 8/26/10

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised millions of eyebrows in early March when she told reporters, we have to pass the health reform bill "so that you can find out what is in it." It goes without saying that few, if any, of the federal lawmakers who voted to pass the legislation had any idea of what was lurking in its 2,801 pages. Nevertheless, Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill had a crystal clear vision of its implications. They knew it would put the nation on the fast-track to a government-run, single-payer system. Read more...

Obama Lied, Your Insurance Died
Sally C. Pipes

The Orange County Register, 8/25/10

"If you like your health care plan," pledged President Barack Obama, "you will be able to keep your health care plan." As the president barnstormed in favor of his health overhaul, that promise was a constant - appearing in speeches, media appearances, and all the administration's literature. It was a lie. Earlier this summer, the White House fessed up. By 2013, according to the administration, eight in 10 employer-sponsored health insurance plans could be gone. Read more...

Sebelius Could Face Health-reg Fight
Jennifer Haberkorn

Politico, 8/23/10

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius could find herself pitted between top Democrats on Capitol Hill and state insurance commissioners over a key section of the health care overhaul. Sebelius is waiting for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to suggest rules surrounding how much insurance companies must spend on medical costs versus administrative expenses or profits. The report, expected in weeks, isn’t likely to be as strict on insurers as top Democrats have hoped.
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Insurance Agents Fight for Survival in World After Health Reform
Julian Pecquet

The Hill, 8/22/10

Insurance agents and brokers, afraid of being rendered irrelevant in the post-health reform world of simplified insurance shopping, are fighting for their very survival. The agents want lawmakers' and regulators' support in getting the Obama administration to recognize their role in the federal insurance Web portal, which lets consumers compare coverage options online. Read more...

Health Reform Rules Can Prove Onerous, but There's a Fix
George J. Pantos

Sun Sentinel, 8/22/10

The White House just released rules governing "grandfathered" insurance plans. Those who qualify will remain legal under the new health care law. Those who don't will have to comply with costly new mandates. Throughout his campaign for health reform, the president vowed that he wouldn't disrupt Americans' existing policies. These rules are meant to fulfill that promise. They're so onerous, though, that most employers will find it impossible to follow them. Grandfathered plans are prohibited from increasing deductibles, out-of-pocket spending limits or co-payments beyond a certain amount. Plans are also barred from eliminating benefits — even if those benefits aren't popular and consumers want the savings. Read more...

Assurant Health Cutting Jobs Ahead Of Health Reform Implementation
Kaiser Health News, 8/20/10

Milwaukee-based Insurer Assurant Inc. is cutting its workforce in various locations around America ahead of health care reform implementation. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that 130 jobs in Milwaukee and Plymouth, Minn., will be cut. "The company, which sells health insurance for individuals and small employers as well as short-term policies, faces an onslaught of new federal health care reform regulations, including the requirement that it spend 80% of premiums on medical care. Read more...

ObamaCare Has Failed
Grace-Marie Turner

Galen Institute, 8/20/10

The wheels are coming off ObamaCare even sooner than most had predicted. The American people are not being fooled by the sugar-coated sales campaign, jobs are being lost, health costs are rising, and the first program to be launched is a dud. A new CNN poll shows that 56 percent of Americans oppose the health overhaul law, with only 40 percent supporting it - virtually unchanged from March when the legislation passed. Rasmussen's latest poll of likely voters shows 60 percent want it repealed. Liberal advocates for the law now have no choice but to admit that their messaging campaign has failed. In a conference call yesterday hosted by Families USA to share extensive polling data, advocates were told to stop saying that the law will reduce costs and lower the deficit. It's not true and people don't believe it. Instead, they advised liberals to focus on anecdotes about people who have been helped by the changes. Read more...

Who in Massachusetts Doesn’t Have Health Insurance?
Katherine Hobson

Wall Street Journal, 8/17/10

Massachusetts has almost-universal health coverage — just 4.1% of its residents went without insurance in 2008. That’s way better than any other state, in terms of access. (The program, however, has been struggling with how to pay for all this expanded access, but that’s another post for another day.) Researchers from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Health Access Reform Evaluation program and the Urban Institute wanted to know more about the uninsured population in the state, so they analyzed data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Their findings appear in a  research brief released today. Read more...