FixHealthCarePolicy

The Medicare Bureaucracy: Ready To Disrupt Seniors’ Drug Coverage

“If you like your health care plan you can keep it.” This was a mantra from President Obama throughout the health care debate. The President also promised that his health care overhaul would not affect seniors’ benefits.

But, despite all the promises, a new report from Avalere Health shows that, in addition to the upheaval caused by Obamacare, the Medicare bureaucracy is taking administrative steps to change the Medicare drug program that will have adverse impact on seniors’ choices. Millions of seniors will have to switch their prescription drug plans due to changes within Medicare. Avalere is a private research firm founded by a former budget official from the Clinton Administration.

Its analysis shows that more than 3 million seniors—roughly 20 percent of those enrolled in stand-alone drug plans—won’t be able to keep their current plan. According to the AP’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, some of seniors’ drug plans will be eliminated as “Medicare tries to winnow down duplicative and confusing coverage, in order to offer consumers more meaningful choices.” (more…)

Tags: Avalere Health, Medicare cuts, Medicare drug program, ObamaCare

Side Effects: Future of Private Insurance Rests in Secretary Sebelius’ Hands

Obamacare requires insurers to meet a federally-specified medical loss ratio. That is, they must spend a certain percentage of premiums on medical expenses. The remainder can be used to cover administrative costs and, if there’s anything left, profits. But if insurers don’t shell out enough in medical losses to meet the requirement, they’ll have to rebate the difference to policyholders

The idea is to limit insurers’ profits and create incentives to reduce administrative costs. But it’s not as clear cut as it sounds. After all, what exactly counts as a medical expense? (more…)

Tags: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, medical expenses, medical loss ratio, ObamaCare, Side Effects

Exclusive Video: Gov. Mitch Daniels on Obamacare’s Devastating Consequences

Editor’s Note: On the right, please watch our exclusive interview with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, and then below, please read an original guest blog to The Foundry from the Governor himself.

We’ve been through a global recession. Now we’re fighting through a stalled recovery. Revenues are the lowest they’ve been in half a century. Their finances a wreck, many states have effectively sunk into bankruptcy.

Indiana is still afloat. In fact, we’ve fared better than most. We continue to meet our obligations without raising taxes, and the reserves we carefully built and protected will get us through the downturn.

But as if we did not already have enough on our plates, the passage and implementation of Obamacare presents us with a whole new set of challenges and a costly to-do list.

(more…)

Tags: consumer-driven health care, Gov. Mitch Daniels, health savings accounts, Healthy Indiana Plan, Medicaid, ObamaCare

Doctors Pushing Back on Obamacare Consolidation

It’s not just the majority of American voters who are itching from the rash of regulations, taxes and government bureaucracy that has stemmed from Obamacare. Small physician groups aren’t ecstatic with the White House’s latest effort to cajole them into swallowing some bitter pills regarding their day-to-day operations.

This week, several Obama administration officials, including a former member of the National Economic Council, published an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine that urged doctors to “embrace rather than resist change” coming from the new health reform law, which passed in March. These changes include the likely demise of many small physician practices as part of “vertical organization” approaches that would promote more hospitals and large-group practices.

“Physicians who embrace these changes and opportunities are likely to deliver the greatest benefits to their patients, the health system, and themselves,” according to the article, which was written by Nancy-Ann DeParle, Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel and Dr. Robert Kocher. (more…)

Tags: Accountable Care Organization, health reform law, ObamaCare, physician groups, small-practice offices, vertical organization

Side Effects: College Students May Lose Health Care Option Under Obamacare

Health care isn’t something most students worry about. Government stats show about 80 percent of college students are covered under a parents’ plan. For them, Obamacare may mean they can keep the insurance they already have for a few years beyond college, but it won’t affect the coverage they carry during school.

But what about kids without parental coverage? The new law’s requirement that insurance cover children up to age 26 won’t make any difference for them.

Currently, college students without coverage can enroll in low-cost student health plans offered through universities. These plans may include limits to keep costs down, but are often designed around to complement university health services to provide comprehensive coverage. Affordability is further achieved by rating student health plans on a campus-wide basis rather than according to the whole individual market. (more…)

Tags: college students, ObamaCare, Side Effects, student health plans, waivers

Obamacare Proponents Running Scared

A new messaging strategy, based on public polling results from top Democratic pollsters, suggests that congressional lawmakers should wave the white flag when discussing Obamacare in their election campaigns. The PowerPoint presentation, released in a conference call organized by Families USA, encouraged officials to “keep claims small and credible: don’t overpromise or ‘spin’ what the law delivers.”

In other words, abandon ship on claims that lawmakers made for months during the health reform debate—that the legislation would in any way reduce the nation’s deficit or lower health care costs (in fact, this was a recommendation in the presentation’s “not-to-do” list). (more…)

Tags: health care costs, higher deficits, ObamaCare, pollsters, public disapproval, repeal

Obamacare: A Parent’s Worst Nightmare

Nothing is more important to Larry Patterson than his family. His four kids, who range from a 2-year-old to a college graduate, shape his outlook on life. They’re one of the primary reasons he’s concerned about the devastating consequences of Obamacare.

Patterson has good reason to be worried. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act diminishes family choice of coverage, limits parental involvement and strikes a blow for family values in health care.

Even with many of the new provisions years from implementation, Patterson is already bracing for the harsh realities of life under Obamacare.

(more…)

Tags: government regulation, limited choice, ObamaCare, parental rights, tax credits

Side Effects: Obamacare Puts States Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Obamacare creates a host of new federal requirements billed as consumer protections. But enacting these policies falls not on the feds, but on the states.

Some of these provisions were among the more popular components of Obamacare: guaranteed issue for children; letting individuals remain on their parents’ health plan up to age 26; requiring insurers to cover federally-defined preventive services, etc.

The goals behind these mandates are worthy. But they could be achieved in better ways. The approach taken here is virtually guaranteed to accelerate insurance costs. Ironically, Obamacare also requires states to review “unreasonable” rate increases.

What authors of the health care takeover failed to consider was whether states actually have the authority to enforce these standards. Robert Pear and Kevin Sack report in a recent New York Times article: (more…)

Tags: federal requirements, guaranteed issue, health insurance regulations, ObamaCare, Side Effects