Millions of Americans can expect to get a refund from their insurance companies this year, at an average of about $80 dollars per family, thanks to a little-known Obamacare provision that’s helping people save money on their premiums. According to a new report released by the Health and Human Services Department on Thursday, Americans across the country have received a total of $1.9 billion dollars in rebates since this provision first took effect in 2011.
Obamacare’s medical loss ratio provision — which is also frequently referred to as the “80/20 rule” — requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of every American’s premium costs on their medical care, rather than on the company’s own profits or administrative overhead. If insurance companies don’t hit the right balance, they have to issue a refund check to their customers to make up for it.
According to HHS’s calculations, 6.8 million Americans will save $330 million in refunds this year because of the 80/20 rule. Insurance companies are required to provide those reimbursements by no later than the beginning of August. Not everyone will actually receive a physical check in the mail; insurers are allowed to apply the reimbursements to future premiums, so the savings could show up that way.
Well no matter how the savings show up they would have been impossible without the passing of Obamacare, a law that Republicans have tried to defund or repeal more than 50 times, and a law which Republican appointed judges are currently trying to undermine.
We need to get Democrats to the polls in huge numbers this November, and in ever increasing numbers going forward after that.
About that 80/20 rule: the big insurance companies are trying to find a way out of it. My company's owner switched us to a BC/BS plan that costs $1000/month in premiums for a family of 3...but also has a $4k deductible before the insurance even begins to kick in. It's been nearly 8 months since this plan started and my family has paid out nearly $8000 in premiums, yet we've only had about $300 worth of medical care...all of it out of our own pocket because we haven't hit the $4k annual deductible. At the rate we're going, we're not even going to exhaust the $4k deductible, which resets next January? I have no idea how this plan is legal.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's NOT legal....we paid for years (12 of them) for a plan that turned out not to be legal. When the **it finally hit the fan things got worse....but the company is now out of business. Didn't recoup our $$, of course. Depending on your state, there will be some oversight board you can contact to find out about it, and it's worth doing for your own peace of mind if nothing else. Better yet, if the company is out of line the board/agency/whatever-your-state-has would hopefully 1)rectify the problem and 2)see that it stops.
DeleteObama Turns The Tables and Uses Economic Patriotism To Blast GOP Corporate Enablers
ReplyDelete...It has become quite clear that this Congress will do absolutely nothing except troll President Obama on your dime when they aren’t robbing you blind to make things cushier for their corporate masters, unless and until they are replaced with actual lawmakers who take pride in a days work. We need some economic patriotism, but we also need a little legislative patriotism.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/26/president-obama-economic-patriotism-blast-tax-loopholes-top-2.html
Ted Cruz and His Father Accuse Obama of Their Own Anti-American Plans
The Cuban anarchist Ted Cruz and his father Rafael are working tirelessly to destroy American democracy and true freedom of religion, by replacing it with the “Christians Only” pabulum being peddled by the Religious Right.
The bought-men of the Supreme Court are more than willing to go along with what the Religious Right is selling (after all, they will do what the Kochs want them to do) but the American people are not. So in typical fear-mongering style, Rafael proclaimed Tuesday, reports Right Wing Watch, that Obama and liberals want to “do away with the Bill of Rights”:
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/26/ted-cruz-father-accuse-obama-anti-american-plans.html
Yeah, it must not be politically expedient for them or else they'd be screaming bloody murder!
ReplyDeleteRepublicans Have Zero Reaction To Obama's Historic LGBT Order
When President Barack Obama signed an executive order Monday making it illegal for federal contractors to fire or harass employees based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, civil rights advocates hailed the move as one of the most important actions ever taken by a president to stem discrimination.
Democratic lawmakers raced to issue statements celebrating the advancement for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. In addition to offering new protections for transgender federal employees, the executive order covers the broad federal contracting community -- some 24,000 companies employing 28 million workers, or about one-fifth of the nation's workforce.
But in Republican quarters on Capitol Hill, it's as if nothing happened. GOP leaders have been silent. Socially conservative members have gone quiet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/26/john-boehner-gay-rights_n_5618954.html
So, are the Republicans referring to it as the Affordable Care Act now, to make sure Obama's name is out of it?
ReplyDeleteOr are they just not mentioning it at all, hoping people will forget the whole thing?
Time for the Republicans to admit they were oh so friggin' wrong when it comes to Obamacare! The assholes!
ReplyDeleteThey cannot comment one way or the other as to President Obama's LGBT Order as they'll lose votes if any of them are up for reelection or running for a position.
I'm so sick of them constantly degrading our wonderful POTUS. If I were President Obama, I'm sure it would be wonderful to tell them to 'fuck off'!!! Don't know how he keeps his cool and has done so since taking the oath the first time.
I suspect Republicans are going to be in big trouble in upcoming elections and can hardly wait for them to argue w/their polls and have to eat shit and concede!
In a way, I'm glad they're calling it "Obamacare", especially realizing it's exceeding expectations despite the blips in the beginning. Republican's are giving POTUS some degree of respect calling the ACA "Obamacare".
ReplyDeleteNow where's that cliff we were all going over, bankrupting families and decimating small businesses because of the high costs of healthcare?
OT POTUS starts "my brother's keeper", bringing role models to young men of color today.
heobamadiary.com/2014/07/26/he-is-my-brothers-keeper/
Republicans aren't giving Obama any respect, nor did they when they called it Obamacare. It was meant t be an insult and term of derision. The fact that Obamacare is working and working better than expected has simply turned the tables on the Republicans. Now they can't take back the term. If they haven't already, they'll start referring to it as the ACA if they refer to it at all.
DeleteTo direct attention away from the success of Obamacare I'm sure they'll double down on Benghazi and the IRS stuff.