Friday, April 27, 2012

Obamacare really DOES care. Americans to receive 1.3 billion in health care rebates.

Courtesy of MSNBC:

Millions of consumers and small businesses will receive an estimated $1.3 billion in rebates from their health plans this summer under a provision of the health care law that effectively limits what insurers can charge for administration and profits, a new study projects. 

Almost one third of people who bought their own insurance last year will get rebates averaging $127, according to an analysis of state data by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) 

"This alone is not going to make health insurance affordable for large numbers of people, but it is getting excess administrative cost out of the system," says Larry Levitt, a study author. 

The percentage of consumers and businesses in line for rebates varies widely by state. In Texas, for example, 92 percent of consumers who purchased individual policies are expected to get rebates because insurers spent too little of their premium dollars on medical care. But in Vermont, Rhode Island, Iowa and Hawaii, insurers are likely to owe less than 1 percent of consumers who bought policies on the individual market. 

Nationally, an estimated 3.4 million people who bought their own coverage are projected to receive rebates this year from 215 insurance plans, according to the study. The biggest dollar amounts are expected to go to consumers in Alaska, where per person rebates are expected to average $305, Maryland, $294, Pennsylvania, $243 and Idaho, $241. Insurers hit the spending targets for policies sold directly to consumers in several states, including Hawaii, Maine and the District of Columbia, so no rebates are expected for individual consumers there. 

More than a dozen states sought to relax the standard for insurance sold directly to consumers, saying it would cause insurers to withdraw from their markets. The Obama administration granted seven such requests, choosing to phase in the requirement between now and 2014 in Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina. 

Rebates averaging $76 per enrollee are projected to go to more than one quarter of small businesses nationally, covering an estimated 4.9 million people. When averaged by state, the biggest per-enrollee rebates will go to businesses in Alaska at $517 and Alabama, at $203 and Oregon, $172. No rebates will go to small businesses in eight states, where insurers met their spending targets, including Hawaii, Minnesota and North Dakota.

Interesting that the state which benefits the most from these rebates is also the state which produced the biggest loudmouth to speak out against the Affordable Care Act, Sarah "Death Panels" Palin.

And perhaps Alaskans should also take note that our current Governor filed suit, along with 20 other states, to overturn the new reforms. Think about that my friends while you are spending your $305 at Costco.

Of course this is only the beginning, and many of the most impressive, and impactful changes to health care in this country are still yet to come.

Unless of course the radically conservative leaning Supreme Court decides to throw the whole thing out that is.

20 comments:

  1. Cracklin Charlie6:41 AM

    I am so glad to see this post, Gryphen. You would not believe how many people have told me that I was lying when I told them about this part of the Affordable Care Act. Some would even say "Why didn't my broker/agent tell me about this"? My response was always "they don't want you to know how the ACA would benefit insurance consumers". The insurance industry has gone whole hog against health care reform because it affects their bottom line profits.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hedgewytch9:15 AM

      Which is why every time a new provision of the Affordable Health Care Act comes into play I FB post it and talk about it far and wide!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous7:02 AM

    the bitch won, the child farm laws were scrapped:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/white-house-child-labor-agriculture_n_1458701.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:45 AM

      I guess she will have plenty of fish to eat, now that the two little boys are cleared to work for their family fishing business. What is the age limit on whoring and pimping in Alaska?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous9:54 AM

      I don't see that she won anything... She was wrong on her facts to begin with.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:01 AM

      The bitch hasn´t won anything since she ¨spearheaded¨ Joe Miller´s historical defeat.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous7:13 AM

    I'm curious if this includes Part B Medicare. Secure Horizons (United Health) raised their co-pays from one time $250 for hospitalization to $250 per day for 4 days = $1000 copay for 4 days and then they transfer to nursing home for 20 days with no co-pay for rehabilitation. Not many on Medicare can afford $1000 every time they are taken to the hospital with chronic illnesses of old age. Especially when most of us lost all our invested money in the stock market crash. We make just enough with SS and pension to not qualify for Medicaid. Part B is automatically taken out of the pension payment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:35 AM

    Ok Bitch, how are you going to try to spin this one? We have not had our daily dose of stupidity from you yet today. Don't disappoint us.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous8:02 AM

    O/T

    Video of Bill Clinton speaking about President Obama:

    "The Commander-In-Chief gets once chance to make the right decision"

    Excellent!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD75KOoNR9k

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous8:05 AM

    President Obama and Mrs. Obama are in Georgia where he will be speaking to the troops, vets and military families at Fort Stewart at 12:35 pm EST

    It is being livestreamed:

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/live

    De

    ReplyDelete
  7. I posted this story on my Facebook page to drive my right wing Republican friends crazy. I sent one into a total meltdown last week with a report on Obama's record. They really can't face the truth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:52 AM

      That is absolutely true. They. cannot. handle. facts. They actually get angry when confronted with facts, because facts tend to brunt anger, a fruit of hate. They are 100 percent emotion-driven. And emotion-driven people in positions of power always make for a bad situation.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous8:22 AM

    I finally had something to bust out laughing at on CNN, as I was clicking through the channels.

    The next segment they have coming up, they called it 'The Nerd Prom' being the Correspondent's Dinner. The two pics they showed before the commercial were of one of the women anchors and Sarah and the other pic included Brisket!! The banner below both pics said 'The Nerd Prom'

    Hilarious and approrpriate!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous9:10 AM

    O/T -- we've got one former vice presidential candidate on trial.
    Sarah, don't think you're immune! Better start that defense fund PAC.

    I doubt that "Bunny" Mellon likes your style.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous9:13 AM

    I grew up under Indian Health Services (now Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium) so until I started working and received my own private health insurance, I had no idea what costs were like.

    It is a build in safety net to be able to go over to our Native hospitals for any reason, appointment-wise or emergent. A lot of people complain about the complacency of the administrators, even doctors, PA's and so forth, and there are costly and devastating mistakes, but I think it happens in private sector medical services too.

    Reading The Rainmaker by John Grisham was horrifying. Granted, it is dramatized for fictional art - but to imagine how it captures corporate greed and institutional hurdles designed to thwart legitimate claims, is stomach-churning.

    Many people are powerless against that kind of system and many have paid with life or limb.

    Reading Facebook posts by dyspeptic citizens make you realize why they, as Teapartiers or whatever they are, feel your access to healthcare is a threat or some kind of unforgivable offense.

    This hyperbole, co-opting of the American right of pursuing life, liberty and happiness only belongs to them and not whom they cherry-pick as worthy of health care. From addicts, to children, to seniors, to immigrants, to college students, to women - essentially half the country, is capriciously and arbitrarily discounted. It's simply astounding.

    http://www.jgrisham.com/the-rainmaker/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous10:18 AM

    How will ALEC spin this? I know, there goes Obama forcing mandates on that all-American insurance industry again! To think they have government telling them how much they can spend on adminstrative costs: this is job-killing at its finest!!
    O?T but my local rag (Dave Camps's hometown propaganda sheet) had an irate editorial spouting the exact same lies about the farm bill as Sarah, and quoting R Congressmen from 4 months ago before the DOL took comments and then amended the bill. I let them have it...again.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous10:45 AM

    WOW!!!

    O/T. New blog on Palin Place. 32 minutes ago.

    http://thepalinplace.blogspot.com/2012/04/new-york-times-put-nicholas-kristof-on.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:14 PM

      Your first word said it all!

      WOW!!

      Let's hope that the 'opportunity' that presented itself that day sets off the sun and moon and stars to align!!

      Delete
  13. Anonymous11:37 AM

    Wow! I sure hope Mr. Kristof follows through on this lead and exposes the rotten underbelly of Alaska's governing "elite".

    ReplyDelete
  14. This rebate is part of the Medical Loss Ratio. If any part of the ACA gets overturned at the Supreme Court, I think it will be this part, not the mandate.
    Insurance companies do not like the MLR and some insurers are no longer providing private health insurance and are divesting into more lucrative endeavors.
    Some say, this divesting out of private insurance business may be the back door to single payer as many, if not all current insurers leave the business.

    ReplyDelete

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