Obamacare fix for canceled health policies could raise costs: insurers

[OhioChick]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON Thu Nov 14, 2013 1:23pm EST

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama's fix for canceled health plans could "destabilize" the insurance market and lead to higher costs for consumers without further steps, America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group, said on Thursday.

"Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the (Obamacare) law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums," AHIP President Karen Ignagni said in a statement.

"Additional steps must be taken to stabilize the marketplace and mitigate the adverse impact on consumers," she said.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/14/us-usa-healthcare-ahip-idUSBRE9AD14720131114

[TwilightGardener]

1. A butterfly fart will also raise insurance premiums. A twinkling star. A cool breeze.

Someone list for me the factors that will DECREASE premiums....I'll wait....

[lostincalifornia]

26. Death

[warrior1]

2. I believe the president said

that the insurance companies have to also inform their clients that they could get better plans through the exchange. Sounds like a win win.

[riversedge]

3. I have to wonder if those who complained of

their cancellations and now can get the same one back (if the company will issue it for one year)--will be satisfied--now that they actually know that their policies are substandard. Wonder if Fox will keep tract of the numbers????

[riversedge]

4. I will add--heard this from someone....

Many of those who complained today will complain next year also.

[global1]

5. So The Right Thing For Them To Have Done Was When They Sent The Letter Cancelling A Persons....

plan - they should have included in that letter that it was because their present plan was deficient and any new coverage would be offering them so much more because all health insurance plans have been upgraded because of the Affordable Care Act. In fact you will be getting better coverage than you ever had with your present plan and you could go to the new exchanges to opt for a plan that suits your pocketbook.

By just cancelling the plans and blaming it on Obamacare with no upside - these same insurance companies confounded this and now that they are being asked to rectify this by the President today - they are still playing the blaming game and pretending to by martyrs.

In fact - it was their intentional sabotaging of this that is in fact 'destabilizing' the insurance market - which is exactly what they intended to do.

Again - instead of our legislators worrying about their constituencies and making sure that they get the best healthcare protection under the law - they are - as always - worried about themselves and their re-election potential.

They've gone down to the root of all our problems in this country - they've turned this political again.

[Myrina]

8. ... they should have included the language that said "ON DECEMBER 31, 2014."

They were trying to scare people into a lather - which they succeeded in doing - for no reason.
The plans aren't set to sunset until the end of 2014. They sorta forgot to mention that.

[B2G]

14. No, they were set to expire in 2013

extending to 2014 was what Obama proposed today.

[cynzke]

18. No.

http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2013/4/3/loophole-could-allow-insurers-to-avoid-aca-mandates-through-2014

[cynzke]

17. Yep.

Insurance companies were not required to cancel those policies on Jan. 1.

[lostincalifornia]

27. They are not required to accept the proposal either. It is now between the states and the insurance

Companies

[cynzke]

16. This doesn't get reported either.

http://www.ibtimes.com/anthem-blue-cross-wellpoint-wlp-unit-sued-allegedly-tricking-tens-thousands-dropping-grandfathered

[dchill]

28. tricks of the trade

it's just business...

[tridim]

6. This is good. These companies are being exposed as the assholes they are.

And the public is starting to figure out how horrible they've been treated for decades.

Keep ramping up the pressure Obama!

[MyNameGoesHere]

7. I am wondering why

the President has not issued an executive order freezing insurance premiums? If you are going to guarantee something use your pulpit to enforce it.

http://goo.gl/dxYnGC

[24601]

24. What would give the President the authority to issue such an EO? The Constitution limits federal

powers to those things articulated in the articles and empowers we the people for things not prohibited.

[MyNameGoesHere]

25. Uh yeah

You should tell that to Nixon. There is precedent for it. It has been used before. We are only talking about a 2-3 month freeze. I think the people would understand that kind of action, as compared to the "You will never ever and 20 minutes after you die" have to change your insurance. That didn't work out so well.

[24601]

29. Given he's long gone ,from office and from life don't think anyone will be telling Nixon anything.

Nor would I expect DU to be the place to hold him up as justification to do anything beyond resigning.

There probably are places that honor him, but not here.

[MyNameGoesHere]

32. Hm.

Yeah. I did that right? No I educated you on precedence. Never glorified Nixon, used him as an example because I remember how unpopular it was. You just wanted to run your yap about something.

Now kindly go have a jag. It will calm your ignorance.

Oh and I just the most recent example I can remember that was very controversial. It was also done by FDR. Carter did it as well but we were so screwed economically no one really whined a lot.

[24601]

34. Nice try backtracking - even with the edits. Perhaps it was indeed a Freudian slip; however, the

reasonable inference is that you implied that the President should follow Nixon's example interpreting Constitutional powers.

My post (admittedly hyperbolic since Nixon probably obeyed the law from time to time) suggested the only thing Nixon did within the bounds of the Constitution was to resign.

I don't believe the President should adopt the Nixonian view of the office.

[Swede Atlanta]

9. Look, they have a point...............

We have a health care INSURANCE system that is based on profit, period. The exceptions are those on Medicare, Medicaid and VA benefits.

The insurers knew the following from the ACA:
(1) Any policy in place at the time the ACA became law (2009?) COULD continue to be offered, i.e. not required to meet the minimum coverage requirements of the ACA
(2) Any policy not in place the time the ACA become law, could not be renewed beyond 2013 unless it met the ACA minimum coverage requirements

So insurers made business decisions to either keep or cancel the grandfathered policies and factored in their costs of providing the minimum coverage for the non-grandfathered policies. They established their policy prices and fed them into the ACA machinery.

Now we are talking about mandating continuation of both the grandfathered and non-grandfathered policies for some period of time - through 2014 or in perpetuity.

Where will this all come out? The insurers established pricing based on an assumption that (a) few grandfathered policies would, even though allowed, be continued to be offered and (b) non-grandfathered policies would be replaced by ones that met the ACA minimums

Running a business this "uncertainty" creates substantial churn. My current job for a private company requires me to look at how various public policies may affect our business. This is a genuine concern.

We need to stop painting the insurers as the bad guys. Yes they have done terrible and horrific things over the years only because we, the people, through our reps, have allowed them to do these things. These things were probably logical if looking at this from a purely business perspective, not a moral one.

So let's face reality......private insurers WILL pass on any additional costs from tweaks to the ACA on to consumers. They will find a way to do this. So to the extent the fix for a relatively small number of insureds drives up cost - SOMEONE (aka you and me) will pay for it.

[TwilightGardener]

11. They had until end of 2014 to shut down

these policies as the ACA was written, but decided to go for more $$ by shutting them down early. They're not even being forced to continue offering the plans now--they're just being reminded that they didn't have to cancel so early. So, I will not shed any tears for them.

[riversedge]

12. Pres Obama does not mandate the same

coverage plans be offered..

But I think the Senate bill does --dumb Sen. Ron Johnson WI--Repug (I think he does, but not sure)

[jtuck004]

13. logical if looking at this from a purely business perspective, not a moral one. <- Like child porn,

selling meth? What a great endorsement for health insurance companies.





Here.

I think all one needs to do is read this and realize the health insurance companies business practices are as low and despicable as any business in the history of this country.

We need to stop painting the insurers as the bad guys< They ARE bad guys. And Women.

To say it's because we let them is like saying slaves were responsible for slavery, or the victim is responsible for their rape.

They richly deserve ALL the bad press they get, and we need to put them out of our misery.

[R Merm]

15. Its time to put them out of business with a single payer plan.

[Iliyah]

19. The healthcare insurance companies are in cahoots

with the GOP party and they planned the cancellation letters w/o further information concerning other policies that could be obtained by the customers to obstruct and destroy ACA (Obamacare).
Issa sending out negative misinformation while the corporate media doesn't even question it. Corporate media and GOP constantly complaining non-stop.
Real people who have obtained policies through ACA are in the positives but if it wasn't for sites like this we would never know about the positive effects ACA has.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

20. I don't think so...this time.

The ACA is a windfall for the Healthcare Industrial Complex.

If we had single payer, or even a government option, I would agree.

As written, the Healthcare Industrial Complex gets a whole lot of low risk customers.

Single Payer is the only way to truly bend the cost-curve.
That is where the Republican partnered with the HIC. They killed single payer.

[RBInMaine]

23. Agreed. Now please explain how to PASS that? I would love it to PASS. But progressives sit home

during elections, then let RePUKES get in, then bitch about them and wonder why we don't get Single Payer.

Round and round and round we go, where it stops no one knows.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

30. I believe it is coming.

Faith has limits though.

The troubles with the website, and the cancellations will help show the truth about for profit healthcare.

Only the truth will win in the end, not mandates and spin.

[RBInMaine]

33. Really? With so many R's in the Congress? Not gonna happen ANYTIME soon.

[The Wizard]

21. The ultimate solution

is to remove the language "Upon reaching age 65" from Medicare and put the insurance shysters out of business. They can all go eat shit and bark at the Moon.

[PSPS]

22. Makes sense

If you have a risk pool and have priced coverage for the pool, having a portion of the pool pay less will require the others to pay more.

The problem here, though, is that these are all individual policies and they seem to be priced outside the proper insurance model of pooled risk. Each policyholder's premium is based on some factor such as age, location, etc., which isn't how pooled risk works. In other words, individual policies are just as bad under ACA as they were before because they are priced on individual risk, not pooled risk.

So, if this prediction turns out to be true, it reveals that individual policies continue to be overpriced solely to subsidize group policies.

[quadrature]

31. if a 1 year delay is good, would a 50 year delay be better? ..nt

[elleng]

35. IMAGINE that they would say that!!!