General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrumpcare allows employers in all 50 states to GUT employees' healthcare plans
Last edited Mon May 8, 2017, 08:33 AM - Edit history (1)
With R's bill..employers would be allowed to buy insurance from "waiver"states!
Their employees could get hit for pre-existing conditions in their premiums . . They'd be "offered" the sub-par, no benefit, cheapo plans!
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)with all the Essential Benefits, because our employers could just arrange insurance through a state that didn't.
It would be a race to the bottom.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)annabanana
(52,791 posts)underthematrix
(5,811 posts)Demsrule86
(68,347 posts)pnwmom
(108,925 posts)pnwmom
(108,925 posts)insurance.
People with their own policies who lived in states that retain Essential benefits, etc., will be okay. But if you have employer based insurance, your employer could buy a skimpy plan offered in any other state.
https://thinkprogress.org/trumpcare-employer-coverage-5f19af287320
As the Wall Street Journal reports, some policy experts are concerned that the House Republican bill would allow large employers to offer benefits in line with the requirements in any state including states that choose to make their benefit standards skimpier under Trumpcare.
Under a last-minute amendment added to the bill, states would be allowed to opt out of the regulations that the Affordable Care Act currently imposes on insurance plans. For example, states could obtain a waiver to opt out of Obamacares regulations requiring coverage for essential health benefits, a set of benefits standardized under the existing health law that includes services like maternity care and mental health treatment. States could also bypass Obamacares limits on out-of-pocket expenses for costly illnesses.
So big employers which are typically always looking to lower the cost of providing health care could choose the most lenient state-level standards to make their overhead costs cheaper.
Its huge, Andy Slavitt, the former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Obama administration, told the Wall Street Journal. Theyre creating a backdoor way to gut employer plans, too.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)kentuck
(110,950 posts)If they can save money and help their shareholders, they will cut employee benefits to the bone. Of course, they will sell it to them as "cheap".
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)restrictions on corporations, i.e., employers, for-profit health insurance, etc?
Why do Republicans - and Democrats - remain silent about that 800lb gorilla in the room every time they draft bills? Why are WE silent about that?
All the problems of higher premiums, co-pays, deductibles, etc., can be resolved by pointing out that corporations should do their due diligence as American enterprise, and work to find ways to benefit the profit-makers: We the People.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)"profit makers"..
It seems they think the bozos who inherited the companies are the profit makers...
crazylikafox
(2,738 posts)annabanana
(52,791 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Last edited Mon May 8, 2017, 11:25 AM - Edit history (1)
But most did not, especially when they were in competition for employees.
Now, I am worried that today's economics make it more difficult for employers to maintain a decent plan. Sometimes, it's because the owners are just too stingy. So screw them. Other times, it's because they are a small employer who just doesn't have much room to maintain a plan.
In fact, unless things have changed from decades ago, pre-existing conditions were not an issue in employer group health plans as far as the premiums someone with diabetes paid vs. those without, although if every employee has diabetes or something serious, the group's plan costs were more in future years. But group health plans did not charge a higher premium to individuals because of pre-existing conditions.
Whatever, it is time to clean all this crud up and make a standard plan -- kind of like with Medicare supplements where if you buy Plan F, you know exactly what you are getting whichever company you buy it from.
The easiest way to clean it up would be single payer, with Medicare the model. But that won't be happening any time soon.
Demsrule86
(68,347 posts)Often they want to get rid of older employees anyway...this bill is a awful, and everyone should be worried...first time, they took aim at employer health insurance.
Demsrule86
(68,347 posts)Now it will be years...and I pray we keep what we have.