"Who's your Daddy?"

Moderator: Super Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
kbot
Pirate
Posts: 7302
Joined: 03-12-2008 05:44 AM

"Who's your Daddy?"

Post by kbot » 08-13-2013 06:21 PM

Remember when Obama said that he'd place a cap on out of pocket expenses concerning healthcare coverage because "people shouldn't go broke" over paying healthcare bills"?

Well, not so fast.

Seems like Obama's had a change of heart on that issue, like he's had on a number of items that went over well with the voters, but now that election season is over, he's having second thoughts on, and, well, just caving to the insurance industry.

Can we say "Yes, we can"?

Key consumer protection in Obamacare delayed

By
Stephanie Condon /
CBS News/ August 13, 2013, 11:06 AM


Updated at 6 p.m. ET

The Obama administration has quietly delayed another key element of the Affordable Care Act, the New York Times reported Tuesday, exempting some insurers for a year from the new limit on out-of-pocket expenses.

The Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010, explicitly set annual limits -- $6,350 for individuals and $12,700 for a family -- on out-of-pocket expenses. Mr. Obama touted the reform as one of the many consumer protections his sweeping health care law would include to make insurance more affordable.

Now, however, some insurers won't have to follow the limit until 2015. Rather than imposing a $6,350 limit on all out-of-pocket expenses, some insurers will have to impose a $6,350 limit on medical expenses, plus a separate $6,350 limit on prescription drug expenses. Other insurers, meanwhile, won't have to apply a limit at all to prescription drug costs.


The one-year delay was granted because some insurers use different administrators to process their medical and prescription coverage and said they needed more time to adjust their processing systems.

The Times notes that the exemption has been posted on the Labor Department's website since February "in a maze of legal and bureaucratic language that went largely unnoticed." Indeed, the Labor Department site acknowledges that some health "plans may utilize multiple service providers to help administer benefits," suggesting they need more time to comply.

The limit on out-of-pocket expenses was a huge selling point for patients suffering from conditions with costly treatments, including cancer or Multiple Sclerosis.

"The promise of out-of-pocket limits was one of the main reasons we supported health care reform," Theodore M. Thompson, a vice president of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, told the Times. "So we are disappointed that some plans will be allowed to have multiple out-of-pocket limits in 2014."

However, the Obama administration notes that many plans will still be required to impose the new $6,350 limit. In fact, every plan that will be offered on the state-based exchanges -- online marketplaces where consumers can purchase private plans -- will be subject to the $6,350 limit on all out-of-pocket expenses, covering both medical and prescription drug costs.

Furthermore, a series of other significant consumer protections also go into effect next year: Insurers will no longer be able to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, they can no longer impose annual dollar limits on total coverage, and they must offer certain baseline health benefits.

"For the first time, new historic consumer protections under the Affordable Care Act will protect consumers from the worst insurance company abuses," Health and Human Services spokesperson Erin Shields Britt said in a statement. "The February guidance builds on these landmark consumer protections by requiring that health plans limit out-of-pocket spending for major medical coverage for the first time, in 2014, on time. This single limit will apply to additional benefits in 2015."

Nevertheless, the delay is another setback in the health care law's implementation. Earlier this year, the administration announced it is delaying the mandate requiring businesses with more than 50 employees to offer their workers insurance.


The delays have fueled conservatives' complaints about the law's design, and Republicans have become more vocal about stopping the law's implementation before some of the biggest parts of the law go into effect next year.


Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), arguing that the government should delay the opening of the exchanges, which are supposed to be ready for open enrollment this October. McConnell's letter was in response to a Health and Human Services (HHS) Inspector General's report produced last week, which indicated that HHS has not proven that the online exchanges will be able to secure consumers' personal data.


"While I have grave concerns about this law under any circumstance, Americans should not be forced into the exchanges, and certainly not without these assurances" McConnell wrote. "If you rush to go forward without adequate safeguards in place, any theft of personal information from constituents will be the result of your rush to implement a law to meet the agency's political needs and not the operational needs of the people it is supposed to serve."

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-575 ... e-delayed/

User avatar
BenSlain
Pirate
Posts: 3419
Joined: 09-14-2000 02:00 AM

Post by BenSlain » 08-13-2013 11:38 PM

Hell in a hand basket.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been The champion of the world.

User avatar
kbot
Pirate
Posts: 7302
Joined: 03-12-2008 05:44 AM

Post by kbot » 08-14-2013 06:04 AM

BenSlain wrote: Hell in a hand basket.


And moving fast.........

Cherry Kelly
Pirate
Posts: 12852
Joined: 07-29-2000 02:00 AM
Contact:

Post by Cherry Kelly » 08-14-2013 03:01 PM

Oh and seems large employers, colleges and unions too, cutting workers hours to 29 -- (NBC and link on drudge) ...

OH ya and insurance companies - NOT your med insurance but others are hiking rates too. ANY insurance that has anything medical attached - car/home - also ahh going up...

User avatar
Diogenes
Pirate
Posts: 5784
Joined: 07-14-2011 03:01 PM

Post by Diogenes » 08-14-2013 05:55 PM

I can tell you first hand employers are pushing back and using whatever is available to them.

Obamacare has outlawed the media med plans and the bottom of the barrel so called Bronze plans with a 6K out of pocket- well they can't afford it.

So much for taking care of the "underserved and underinsured".

They screwed up cash for clunkers so what does a fairly half intelligent person think they will do with healthcare.

In getting in to this on a business level - has anyone ever looked at the annual salary/# of children poverty schedule?

We encourage poverty by gifting folks with paying no federal taxes - the more kids you have the less you pay or pay nothing and the more we pay to support your kids.
A man's character is his fate

User avatar
kbot
Pirate
Posts: 7302
Joined: 03-12-2008 05:44 AM

Post by kbot » 08-15-2013 06:35 AM

Cherry Kelly wrote: Oh and seems large employers, colleges and unions too, cutting workers hours to 29 -- (NBC and link on drudge) ...

OH ya and insurance companies - NOT your med insurance but others are hiking rates too. ANY insurance that has anything medical attached - car/home - also ahh going up...


Did anyone with at least one functioning brain cell not see the idea of cost-shifting as a more-than-probable solution to the probelm as envisioned by insurance companies?

People simply cannot be THAT much in denial or naive, can they?

Cherry Kelly
Pirate
Posts: 12852
Joined: 07-29-2000 02:00 AM
Contact:

Post by Cherry Kelly » 08-15-2013 09:07 AM

kbot -- yes people are receiving notices from these 'other' insurance carriers about rate hikes. As discussed in a chat last evening - three people from different states reported about it. One was auto and other two were home owners.

Should also add some renters were also having rent hikes. One guy "renting to own" a small home (think he was from GA) said he received notice about it from the bank involved.

Post Reply

Return to “Politics and Government 2010-2013”