Fix Health Care Policy

Obamacare at Three Years: A Broke Program for Early Retirees

Newscom

Adding to the list of documented Obamacare failures (see here, here, here, and here) is the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP).

Obamacare created the ERRP to provide employers and other health plan sponsors funding for insuring early retirees between the ages 55 and 65 and their dependents. Eligible plan sponsors would receive partial federal reimbursement for health benefit claims beginning in June 2010 until 2014, serving as a bridge program until Obamacare’s government-run exchanges are up and running.

As Heritage research pointed out in 2011, “Based on a report from the Obama Administration, the program appears to be mostly a bailout for public-sector and union health benefit programs for early retirees.” Indeed, that Administration report shows that of the approved ERRP sponsors, government plans accounted for 47 percent of total plans and union plans accounted for 10 percent.

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: broken promises, Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, government-run exchanges, ObamaCare, regulations

Obamacare: Projected Premium Increases by State

Newscom

Remember that repetitive presidential promise to “cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year”? As 2014 and full implementation of Obamacare get closer, it is crystal clear that won’t be the case.

Obamacare’s most onerous insurance regulations will directly cause insurance premiums to skyrocket, particularly in the individual and small group markets.

While there are many provisions that will increase premiums, two will have the most expensive impact:

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: broken promises, higher costs, insurance, insurance regulations, ObamaCare, premiums

Obamacare’s Top 5 Broken Promises

Talking about his health care law, President Obama has said, “If you misrepresent what’s in this plan, we will call you out.” In keeping with that spirit, below is a list of Obamacare’s top five biggest broken promises:

1.) “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.”
Reality: Research continues to show that as many as 30 percent of employers will dump their employees out of their existing health care coverage. And, as Heritage analysts have noted, new coverage mandates are forcing plans to change, even for those who have moral objections.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: broken promises, dropped coverage, employers, health care plan, President Obama

Side Effects: If You Like Your HSA, Get Ready to Lose It

Everyone remembers President Obama’s repeated promise, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.” Unfortunately, Obamacare breaks this promise many times over. One way is through its medical loss ratio (MLR) requirement and the impact it will have on consumer-driven, high-deductible health plans (HDHP) that include health savings accounts (HSA) in individual and small group markets, a new report from Milliman shows.

The MLR requires that insurance companies spend 80 percent of revenue from premiums on medical claims or anything that improves the quality of health care. The additional 20 percent is for administrative and other non-medically related expenses. If the minimum of 80 percent is not met, the insurer must issue a rebate to the consumer.   (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: broken promises, health savings accounts, HSAs, Milliman, ObamaCare

Five Health Care Promises Obama Won’t Keep

CBS News’ Stephanie Condon identifies Five Health Care Promises Obama Won’t Keep, including:

1. No Individual Mandate

During the 2008 Democratic primary, Mr. Obama and then-Sen. Hillary Clinton both shared the goal of health care reform. By Mr. Obama’s own admission, the biggest difference between the two candidates was that Clinton supported a mandate for all Americans to acquire health care.

“Now, under any mandate, you are going to have problems with people who don’t end up having health coverage,” Mr. Obama said during a debate with Clinton on Jan. 31, 2008. “I think we can anticipate that there would also be people potentially who are not covered and are actually hurt if they have a mandate imposed on them.”

Under the leadership of the late-Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), however, Congress wrote bills that called for an individual mandate. In June, the president indicated in a letter to Kennedy and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that he was changing his tune to accommodate their legislation. (more…)

Tags: broken promises, individual mandates, Obama Health Care Plan