Administration launches Healthcare.gov
Americans now have a new way to compare health insurance plans. The Obama administration unveiled Healthcare.gov on Thursday, saying it will "help take some of the mystery out of shopping for health insurance."
The health care reform law called for the creation of an Internet portal to help small business owners and people who aren't able to get insurance through their employer.
The new site allows them to sort through health insurance options and make side-by-side comparisons, but to actually price and purchase a plan, they still must click through to insurers' own websites. (In October, the site will begin to include pricing information.)
"The site makes a system that thrived on complication and confusion easier to understand," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Read her White House blog post here.
Users answer a series of questions about their age, Zip code, job status and financial situation, and the site returns a list of options from private plans as well as Medicare and Medicaid and even nearby clinics offering low- or no-cost care.
The site includes data for more than 1,000 insurance carriers and 5,500 products, plus information on Children's Health Insurance Programs. Healthcare.gov also features a wide range of informational content on the health care reform law and its implementation. Kaiser Health News provides a Q/A about the site here.
(Not to be used for implementation purposes. This is intended as an advisory only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Consult a legal or tax professional for guidance.)
Insurance plan debuts for those with pre-existing conditions
A new insurance plan is available for uninsured people with pre-existing health conditions. The Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan - also known as the "federal high-risk pool" - is expected to cover as many as 350,000 individuals.
U.S. citizens or legal residents are eligible if they have been uninsured for at least six months and if a private health insurance company has denied them coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
"Health coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions has historically been unobtainable or failed to cover the very conditions for which they need medical care," said Jay Angoff, director of the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency overseeing the program. "The Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan is designed to address these challenges by offering comprehensive coverage at a reasonable cost."
The federal government will run the program in 21 states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas. The other 29 states, including Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin, will run the so-called "high-risk pool" themselves. A state-by-state list is available here.
The same plan design will be available in all of the 21 states where the federal government is administering the program, with individual premiums ranging from $140 to $900 per month. Cost and benefits will vary by state and the age of the applicant, but health conditions will not affect premium rates.
The federal plan began taking applications on July 1 through this page. at the new Healthcare.gov website, and the administration says people who apply by July 15 will have their coverage begin August 10.
Many states also began enrollment July 1 and others are scheduled to begin enrollment by the end of the summer. Information about state plans is also available at healthcare.gov.
The high-risk pool program is intended to bridge the gap until new health insurance exchanges open in 2014, but with just $5 billion in federal funding available, many believe the dollars won't last long enough. That's why some states were reluctant to run their own program, fearing they could be left without adequate funding to continue offering the plan.
An HHS fact sheet about the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan is available here., and a news release announcing the program is available here.
(Not to be used for implementation purposes. This is intended as an advisory only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Consult a legal or tax professional for guidance.)
"Patient's Bill of Right" announced
The Obama administration released a package of new health care reform regulations at a White House event on June 22.
"Today," the President said, "I'm announcing that the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury are issuing new regulations..that will put an end to some of the worst practices in the insurance industry, and put in place the strongest consumer protections in our history - finally what amounts to a true Patient's Bill of Rights."
The regulations that were issued address preexisting condition exclusions for children (no one under 19 can be excluded in policies issued or renewed on or after September 23), lifetime and annual limits on essential benefits (no more lifetime limits in any policies issued or renewed on or after September 23; annual limits will be phased out over three years), restrictions on rescissions (no more rescissions except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of facts), and patient protections relating to emergency services and choice of health care professionals (these two protections do not apply to grandfathered plans). See the HHS fact sheet here.
In his remarks, the President described health reform as "a long overdue victory for America's consumers and patients. It does away with the status quo that some insurance companies have taken advantage of for so long," he said.
"But insurance companies should see this reform as an opportunity to improve care and increase competition," he continued. "They shouldn't see it as an opportunity to enact unjustifiable rate increases that don't boost care and inflate their bottom line." Obama said his administration would work with the states to monitor premium increases.
But he also acknowledged that "there are genuine cost-drivers that are not caused by insurance companies." Ron Williams, CEO of Aetna, pointed out some of them when he talked to the press after the meeting. For example, the rule that insurers allow children to stay on their parent's plan until age 26 "does increase costs," Williams said, "and that cost is going to show up in the premium increases." He added that increases in hospital, doctor and drug costs will, too.
Obama also addressed health care politics. He said, "We're in Washington, so obviously there's politics involved. We've got some folks on the other side of the aisle who still say none of this should have happened, and, in fact, said they're going to run on a platform of repeal. They want to go back to the system we had before. Would you? Would you want to go back to discriminating against children with pre-existing conditions? Would you want to go back to dropping coverage for people when they get sick?...
"We're not going back. I refuse to go back,”"the President said.
(Not to be used for implementation purposes. This is intended as an advisory only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Consult a legal or tax professional for guidance.)
The latest from Gallup
- Americans remain divided on health care reform. In June, 49 percent of those surveyed by Gallup said say passage of health care reform was a good thing; 46 percent said it was a bad thing (a statistically insignificant shift from April, when 45 percent thought it was good and 49 percent thought it was bad).
- 50 percent of Americans are in favor of Congress’ repealing all or much of the law.
- Views of the law remain highly partisan. Independents lean against, 51 percent to 43 percent, which has not changed since April.
- Among age groups, seniors are the most opposed: 60 percent call passage of the bill a bad thing, up from 57 percent in April.
To see the results of other polls, go to Real Clear Politics.
