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Archive - 2010

Date

December 21st

Federal Rate Review Regulation May Exceed Statutory Authority

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a proposed regulation that creates a federal health insurance rate review program. Read more »

December 20th

Governors Should Resist Obamacare’s Attempt to Wrest Control of Insurance Rate Review from the States

State governors need to resist a federal grant which would give the federal government control over health insurance rate increases. Read more »

December 17th

National Association of Insurance Commissioners Approves Model Health Exchange Legislation

State insurance commissioners have drafted model legislation to assist state legislatures in creating health insurance exchanges under Obamacare. Read more »

November 19th

Obamacare’s Medical Loss Ratio—Discouraging Anti-Fraud Efforts

Health care fraud is a serious problem in the United States. 60 Minutes reports that $60 billion dollars of Medicare fraud alone is committed each year. While Obamacare requires spending an additional $350 million from public funds to combat health care fraud over the next ten years, it discourages private anti-fraud measures through its proposed Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) regulation. Read more »

HHS Signals New Waivers for Mini-Med Plans

A flurry of media activity followed the Wall Street Journal’s September story that 30,000 McDonald's employees could lose their healthcare if HHS did not grant them a waiver from the Obamacare requirements. A waiver was granted, confirming the belief of many that Obamacare was a mistake.

As it turns out, McDonald's, and other employers that offer “mini-med” plans to their employees, actually need two waivers if their mini-med plans are to survive. Read more »

Medical Loss Ratio Places Thousands of Insurance Brokers’ Jobs at Risk

“I have 100,000 licensed agents in my state alone and this is a serious threat to their livelihoods,” warns Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon of the impact of the proposed Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) regulation. Read more »

How the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) is Calculated

Essentially, a Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) is the percentage of money a health insurance plan spends on health benefits from each premium dollar. Obamacare sets a minimum MLR of 85% (80% for plans that insure individuals or small businesses with fewer than 100 employees). If an insurer’s MLR falls below this minimum, it must issue refunds to its enrollees for the difference.

But the formula is a little more complex than that. Read more »

October 12th

HHS expects 1,500 waiver requests from Obamacare annual limit requirement

On October 7, 2010, Health and Human Services submitted an Information Collection Request to the Office of Management and Budget. In its request, HHS stated that it now expects 1,500 waiver requests per year—15x its initial estimate of 100 waiver requests. Read more »

September 20th

Forcing the Obama Administration to Admit Obamacare’s Real Costs (Part I)

We all know that regulations come at a cost to consumers, but what are those costs and how are they calculated?

In an attempt to justify the onerous new mandates for health insurance plans the Obama Administration has included some peculiar cost estimates as part of their new regulations implementing the Obamacare legislation. Read more »

August 16th

Labor Department Health Care Regulation will force employees to switch health care providers

Government estimates up to 69% of all employer health plans will cease to exist Read more »