Our Health Policy Matters

Obamacare may already be making private health insurers more efficient, according to a year-over-year comparison of data related to the biggest consumer protection in the law. Last year, insurers had to rebate $1.1 billion to consumers because they failed to meet the minimum payout percentage required by the law .  That was the first year the payout provision, or mandatory minimum loss ratio, was in effect. This year, the federal government has announced that the rebate will be just half that – slightly more than $504 million. And the number of consumers who receive a rebate will also be smaller.  Last year, 12.7 million customers received rebates.  This year, the number receiving rebates has dropped by one-third, to 8.5 million. Why are fewer and smaller rebates a good thing? According to the Department of Health and Human Services, this is evidence that insurers are “ spending more of their premium dollars directly toward patient care and qualit...

Obamacare may already be making private health insurers more efficient, according to a year-over-year comparison of data related to the biggest consumer protection in the law. Last year, insurers had to rebate $1.1 billion to consumers because they failed to meet the minimum payout percentage required by the law .  That was the first year the payout provision, or mandatory minimum loss ratio, was in effect. This year, the federal government has announced that the rebate will be just half that – slightly more than $504 million. And the number of consumers who receive a rebate will also be smaller.  Last year, 12.7 million customers received rebates.  This year, the number receiving rebates has dropped by one-third, to 8.5 million. Why are fewer and smaller rebates a good thing? According to the Department of Health and Human Services, this is evidence that insurers are “ spending more of their premium dollars directly toward patient care and qualit...

If you run a small business in Florida, are self-employed in Texas, or work for a large corporation in New Jersey ( see an update below ), then your state insurance regulators probably haven't been working for you. The news that 15.8 million people can expect $1.3 billion in rebates from insurers this year because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) underscores how weak health insurance regulation has been in states across the country.  It may come as no surprise that Florida and Texas, two leaders in the fight against ACA, have been exposed as anti-consumer.  But they are not the only states with an anti-consumer bias. First, the good news: last week, the federal government announced that three-quarters of us will get letters beginning on July 1 telling us that our insurance plans paid out at least 80 to 85 cents in benefits for every premium dollar they collected. This means that under ACA they met the minimum standard for a reasonable benefit payout (which i...

If you run a small business in Florida, are self-employed in Texas, or work for a large corporation in New Jersey ( see an update below ), then your state insurance regulators probably haven't been working for you. The news that 15.8 million people can expect $1.3 billion in rebates from insurers this year because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) underscores how weak health insurance regulation has been in states across the country.  It may come as no surprise that Florida and Texas, two leaders in the fight against ACA, have been exposed as anti-consumer.  But they are not the only states with an anti-consumer bias. First, the good news: last week, the federal government announced that three-quarters of us will get letters beginning on July 1 telling us that our insurance plans paid out at least 80 to 85 cents in benefits for every premium dollar they collected. This means that under ACA they met the minimum standard for a reasonable benefit payout (which i...