Fix Health Care Policy

If You Like Your Health Care Plan, Can You Keep It?

At a recent Energy and Commerce hearing, health policy experts testified on the effects Obamacare will have on jobs and employer-sponsored coverage. The title of the hearing said a lot: “Cutting the Red Tape: Saving Jobs from PPACA’s [Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] Harmful Regulations.”

Since Obamacare will require employers to spend more money on health care plans for their employees, it’s expected to hinder job creation. To avoid this, a discussion draft under review would prevent the regulations and requirements in the new law from affecting grandfathered health plans. This way people could keep their existing plans, and employers wouldn’t experience the rising costs that will result from Obamacare’s requirements for employer-sponsored coverage.  (Read the rest on The Foundry…)

Tags: employer-sponsored coverage, existing plans, lose coverage, ObamaCare, rising health care costs

The Right Way to Limit Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions

The inability of some Americans to obtain health insurance for pre-existing medical conditions continues to be used by Obamacare supporters as justification for the mammoth legislation. The truth, however, is that the problem was nowhere near as big as portrayed, and the solution doesn’t require 2,700 pages of legislation or $1 trillion in new government spending.

Over 90 percent of Americans with private health insurance are covered by employer group plans where existing rules governing the application of pre-existing condition exclusions are not an issue. Before passage of Obamacare, the law specified that individuals with employer-sponsored insurance cannot not be denied new coverage, be subjected to pre-existing-condition exclusions, or be charged higher premiums because of their health status, when switching to different coverage. Thus, group market, pre-existing-condition exclusions only apply to those without prior coverage, or to those who wait until they need medical care to enroll in their employer’s plan. (more…)

Tags: child-only policies, employer-sponsored coverage, health insurance, ObamaCare, pre-existing conditions

Side Effects: Regulatory Pillow to Smother Grandfathered Plans

The Department of Health and Human Services has rolled out regulations governing health plans in effect prior to the passage of Obamacare. You know, the plans that “if you like it, you can keep it?”

The new regs will mostly affect the 170 million-plus Americans who carry employer-sponsored coverage. The vast majority of them (82 percent) are satisfied with their current coverage.

The new regs will make it tough for a lot of those folks to hold onto their current plans, even though the Department of Health and Human Services continues to claim otherwise. That because HHS is ready to revoke the “grandfathered” status of existing plans whenever an employer makes what it deems to be a “significant” change in terms of coverage. And the HHS regs show that common adjustments such as an increase in deductibles or co-pays or a reduction in benefits would be considered “significant.” (more…)

Tags: employer-sponsored coverage, grandfathering, ObamaCare, Side Effects