Who's selling Romneycare these days? Is it free?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Some finding it hard to find health insurance in Mass.
Apr 7, 2010
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(NECN: Peter Howe, Boston) Some Massachusetts residents and small businesses may find it harder to get health insurance as a battle between the industry and Governor Deval Patrick's administration heads to court Thursday.


The fight affects people shopping for new health insurance this week, as well as businesses or organizations with a health plan that has 49 or fewer people, and it could also affect some people or 2- to 49-person groups renewing plans. (Under the state insurance law dubbed "RomneyCare" for former governor Mitt Romney, people are required to get insurance or pay a tax penalty, and businesses are required to offer employees coverage or pay a fine.

What happened Tuesday and Wednesday was that coverage from several major insurers became no longer available for individuals and small groups through the state health website, MaHealthConnector.org . It is disputed between state officials and health insurers whether insurers began boycotting the site or whether state officials required them to remove themselves from it while the legal fight over 2010 health insurance rates plays out.

"Consumers are being held hostage, and their health care is being held hostage,'' said Amy Whitcomb Slemmer, executive director of Health Care For All, a Boston group that helps Massachusetts residents find and buy the state-mandated insurance and also advocates for broader, less expensive health coverage at the State House.

Is healthcare a commodity?  An entitlement?  Who does this woman think pays for it?  Obama just prints more money?

"I am most disturbed that there was no notice given to consumers. There was kind of no opportunity for people to plan ahead … We are very concerned as consumer advocates and representatives, and we are very upset,'' Whitcomb Slemmer said.

How would people plan ahead?  If the product is bankrupting the 'insurance' company, why would anyone sell it?  Lose money in advance?

But Lora Pellegrini of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans said insurers didn't walk away -- they were kicked out. Citing an email to health plan administrators from state insurance regulators, Pellegrini said, "The Division of Insurance instructed the Connector to pull down the rates of the health plans that sell through the Connector" because the proposed 2010 rates were in dispute. After the division rejected rate increases last month sought by health insurers -- ranging from 8 to 32 percent -- health plans could only sell under the 2009 rates, and there are delays in getting the new numbers up on the Connector website.

"We tried to work with the governor and his administration. We tried to talk about the kind of chaos that could ensue if he went forward with the idea of capping these rates,'' Pellegrini said. She added that "I hope it's not the case" election-year politics are behind the Patrick administration's aggressive efforts to reject and cap health insurance rate increases. "Playing politics with the health-care system is a very dangerous game because it's very complicated,'' Pellegrini said, and it is often compared to a balloon that only swells up somewhere else if it gets pushed down in one place.

more here - http://www.necn.com/04/07/10/Some-finding-it-hard-to-find-health-insu/landing.html?blockID=211941&feedID=4215

When will doctors and hospitals start working for free?  All those small businesses start working for free?

[WhiskeyGirl]

The Massachusetts Insurance Blackout
Insurers go on strike after Deval Patrick imposes price controls.

The Massachusetts small-group market that serves about 800,000 residents shut down after Mr. Patrick kicked off his re-election campaign by presumptively rejecting about 90% of the premium increases the state's insurers had asked regulators to approve. Health costs have run off the rails since former GOP Governor Mitt Romney and Beacon Hill passed universal coverage in 2006, and Mr. Patrick now claims price controls are the sensible response to this ostensibly industry greed.

Yet all of the major Massachusetts insurers are nonprofits. Three of largest four—Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tufts Health Plan and Fallon Community Health—posted operating losses in 2009. In an emergency suit heard in Boston superior court yesterday, they argued that the arbitrary rate cap will result in another $100 million in collective losses this year and make it impossible to pay the anticipated cost of claims. It may even threaten the near-term solvency of some companies. So until the matter is resolved, the insurers have simply stopped selling new policies.

One irony is that Mr. Patrick's own Attorney General and his insurance regulators have concluded—to their apparent surprise—that the reason Massachusetts premiums are the highest in the nation is the underlying cost of health care, not the supposed industry abuses that Mr. Patrick and his political mentor President Obama like to cite.

On top of that, like ObamaCare, integral to the Massachusetts overhaul are mandates that require insurers to cover anyone who applies regardless of health status or pre-existing conditions and to charge everyone about the same rates. This allows people to wait until they're about to incur major medical expenses before buying insurance and transfer the costs to everyone else. This week Blue Cross Blue Shield reported a big uptick in short-term customers who ran up costs more than four times the average, only to drop the coverage within three months.

Last July, Charlie Baker detailed similar gaming at Harvard Pilgrim, the health plan he used to run. Between April 2008 and March 2009, about 40% of its new enrollees stayed with it for fewer than five months and on average incurred costs about 600% higher than the company would have otherwise expected.

Where does the State of Mass. think the insurance companies will get the money to pay claims?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304198004575171782805022028.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

[WhiskeyGirl]

The state Division of Insurance rejected 235 of the companies' 274 proposed rate increases for a category including small businesses with up to 50 employees. The insurers were seeking base rate increases from 8 percent to 32 percent.

The rejection came after the governor publicly proclaimed that double-digit premium increases were preventing small businesses from adding jobs. Patrick said the state would consider rejecting any rates it deemed "unreasonable."

The insurers say their premiums can't be capped without similar limits on the charges issued to them by doctors, hospitals and other health care providers. Otherwise, the state will force them to take a loss. The Legislature is weighing cost control legislation.

Richlin revealed that regulators told the insurers — before they issued their rejections — that they would approve premium increases if they were limited to no more than 7.7 percent.

The administration contends that is the rate of inflation in the medical consumer price index.

The insurers argued, though, that no insurance actuarials would sign off — as required — on that figure.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hruF7V08UtA2aqZBT7ZLCncP3NbAD9EV2K685

Is the 7.7 percent based on facts?  Actual cost of insuring people with catastrophic problems for just one or two months?

The same costs that bankrupted some families is not being pushed onto responsible families.

No one has to keep coverage.  Should everyone be forced to pay for those that only want temporary insurance when they get sick?

Why not shift the burden of coverage to individuals?  Payment plans for the uninsured?  Send medical tourists home?

[WhiskeyGirl]

User Image     
Grog29 wrote:
How can the state force price controls on insurance rates and
NOT force price controls on hospitals, drug companies, and providers?

That's illegal and the court will say so.
4/10/2010 7:31 AM EDT

Where is the incentive for consumers to save?  Why should users be given incentives to wait until they are sick?  Why should responsible people have to pay for medical tourists?

User Image     
tecnodog wrote:
If the state of Massachusetts has these problems, just wait until we have Obamacare.Just in case you don't know they will try and pass the cap and trade tax and now John Kerry was talking about a value added tax to pay for everything as they have in Europe.This was Obama's plan all the time.Isn't hope and chains wonderful?
4/10/2010 8:12 AM EDT

Hmmm...a VAT tax on top of Obama's medical devise tax?  The devise costs say $.01, and the taxes cost like $500?

User Image     
HUNKRANCHER wrote:
Obama and the Democratic Socialists will have healthcare in such a mess folks will need to start saving money to go to Switzerland to the private clinics if they get really sick. The government will have our system in such a mess who would want to use it? They destroyed the best healthcare system in the world just to become bigger control freaks. Disgusting. Never vote for a Democrat. They are all socialist and destroy jobs and the economy. Spain socialists now have unempmloyment over 20%. That is where we are headed and Obama just flies around the world on that plane we pay for acting as if he knows what he is doing when the entire world now knows he is an idiot worse than Bush far worse.
4/10/2010 8:38 AM EDT

User Image     
HUNKRANCHER wrote:
Since the Democrats passed Healthcare as another ponzi scheme watch out for any help there! This whole house of cards is about to come tumbling down with no funds for SS, Medicare or Healthcare. Only sorry Congressmen could create such a mess.Vote all incumbents out in NOvember. Our only chance to survive.
4/10/2010 8:46 AM EDT

more here - http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2010/04/10/no_end_yet_to_insurance_standoff/?comments=all#readerComm

[WhiskeyGirl]

BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick said Friday he supports tea party ideals such as personal liberty and responsibility, but the grassroots political movement loses his support when it challenges the citizenship of President Barack H. Obama.

Patrick is like Obama, in that they are not only Democrats, but the first blacks to hold their respective office. They also are friends and fellow Chicagoans.

The governor also said he wants the state to evaluate its health insurance mandates to see if residents are being forced to buy coverage they don’t need, or if there’s enough incentive for good health.

I think the problem, is that some folks are being forced to pay for others that game the system, medical tourists, illegal aliens, excessive care...

Does it matter how little your policy covers, will it make a difference if you're still forced to pay for others wanting a free ride?

Medical providers that wave false hope and promises in the faces of desperate families?  Any of those treatments ever keep cancer patients alive forever?

more here - http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/04/mass_gov_deval_patrick_critici.html

from the comments -

Posted by ls323
April 09, 2010, 4:03PM

Right. My concern is not allowing Obama to turn the USA into a giant bankrupt thrid world cesspool.

[WhiskeyGirl]

ObamaCare was in part modeled after some states' own health reform measures.  What happened there provides striking insight into what the country is in for over the next few years.  States like New York, Massachusetts, and Colorado share common reform measures with the new national health reform law and hold keys to understanding what lies ahead.

Health insurance reforms have most often been based on a pair of mandates targeting the individual and small group markets.  The first is an underwriting method known as "community rating."  The second is "guarantee issue." Under these new rules insurance carriers are forbidden to rate health plans by using actual group demographic and claim experience, known as "experience rating", and are required to take all applicants, regardless of existing health condition, gender, occupation, or age.  The intent is to expand access to insurance by forcing carriers to accept all applicants.  The thinking is that by community rating with guarantee issue, costs will be stabilized over a larger group of policyholders because insurers would be prohibited from cherry picking preferred-risk individuals and groups.  Thus, access is expanded and costs are stabilized and ultimately reduced.

A review of history does not sustain this assertion.

...

Hall also reviewed the impact to pricing.  He found that indemnity rates for individual policies increased by nearly 40% per year for the first two years following reform.  Small group rates increased between 10 and 14% during the same period.  Hall also found that about 20% of small group and 25% of individual subscribers received rate increases of 40% or more following reform.  Wellpoint's California DOI-approved increase that set Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius off a few months ago was, wait for it, 39%. 

Another example is a small group of about 35 employees my team services.  Last year, their renewal called for a 35% increase.  To reduce the impact, the group cut benefits and increased employee premium cost sharing.  This year, the proposed increase is 55%!   Forget about the projected cost reductions, where's the stability of rates we were promised?

The fact of the matter is that community rating is a bill of goods that increases healthcare insurance costs. Hall notes, "Community rating increases cost for healthier subscribers, thereby at the margin driving some from the market, and guarantee issue attracts higher risks into the market."

...In essence, the DOI is placing price caps on health insurance premiums and ignoring the actual cost of providing health care.  They too have a community rating system introduced in their reform legislation.  Read the linked article and pay close attention to what the insurers are saying about their ability to remain solvent after sustaining significant losses last year.

As of January 1, 2014 community rating will be the law of the land in every state.  The entire nation will be subject to these reform measures.  Anybody care to read some tea leaves?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/reading_the_tea_leaves_of_heal.html