Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
GAO Report Finds Many Adults Have Pre-Existing Conditions –
On Thursday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that found as many 122 million adults in the U.S. suffer from a pre-existing health condition, which could result in a health insurer denying coverage, requiring higher-than-average premiums, or restricting coverage. The report compared several recent studies that tried to determine how many U.S. adults have pre-existing conditions, based on the prevalence of certain common conditions. Starting in 2014, the Health Care Reform Law prohibits insurers from denying coverage, increasing premiums or restricting benefits because of an existing or prior health problem.
In response to increased attention to pre-existing conditions and the individual market, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) posted information on their blog intended to provide a fact check on coverage for pre-existing conditions. Specifically, the blog post notes that the vast majority of people under the age of 65 get their health care coverage through their employer, are guaranteed coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions, and the premiums they pay are not based on their health status. Additionally, AHIP emphasizes that requiring plans to cover everyone is closely linked to the individual mandate, which the Supreme Court is currently reviewing.
U.S. House Ways & Means Committee Releases Report on PPACA’s Financial Incentives for Employers to Drop Health Coverage
On Tuesday, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee released a report entitled “Broken Promise: Why ObamaCare Will Force Americans to Lose the Health Care Coverage They Have and Like.” The report follows Committee Chairman Dave Camp’s (R-MI) letters to the CEOs of the Fortune 100 companies – 71 of whom responded. Highlighting aggregate data the panel received from the companies, the report builds a narrative around the fiscal incentive that employers may have to drop employer-sponsored health insurance as a result of the Law. According to the report, these employers could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year under the new Health Care Reform Law by simply dropping their employer-sponsored health insurance and moving employees into the Law’s new health Exchanges.
Based on the report’s data, if all 71 respondents stopped offering health care and instead paid the employer mandate penalty they could save a total of $28.6 Billion in 2014 (an average savings of over $400 Million per company) and $422.4 Billion from 2014-2023 (an average savings of nearly $6 Billion per company). In a statement, Camp said, “The findings of the report, along with existing research, show that the Democrats’ health care law threatens the stability and sustainability of the employer-based health insurance system. Anyone who gets insurance through their job should be worried about what will happen next, because there is a distinct financial incentive for employers to terminate health care coverage under the Democrats’ health care law.”
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