Monday, July 30, 2012

Did You Get Your ObamaCare Letter Yet?

I got my ObamaCare letter yesterday.  Lately I've been so caught up in the other troubling aspects of the AFA -- like the contraceptive mandate and the Supreme Court ruling on the penalty/tax -- that the "Medical Loss Ratio" rule had fallen off my radar screen.
But health insurers certainly haven't been able to forget about it.  Here's an excerpt of the letter I received from my insurer, which was described in the header as "informational only per government requirements":
The Affordable Care Act requires health insurers in the individual and small group markets to spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they receive on health care services and activities to improve health care quality...If a health insurer does not spend at least 80 percent...[it] must rebate the difference.
The 2011 ratios were required to be calculated and rebates issued no later than August 1, 2012.
I wasn't surprised to not receive a rebate, but was floored to think of the implications of that letter:  Our government has actually granted itself the power to define via thousands of pages of new regulations ("and they're not even done yet"), specific practices, procedures, and limitations on the profits of a private industry.

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