| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Did You Get Your ObamaCare Letter Yet?
July 30, 2012
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.
Numerous factors that affect profits are out of the insurer's direct control, and nebulous terms like "services," "activities," and "quality" open the door for some creative accounting. And it's reasonable to question whether profit limitations truly benefit the insured if such limits also diminish the insurer's ability and incentive to improve the quality of its operations. At the very least such rules give unelected HHS officials the power to exert lots of discretion, as it has already proven with the grant of numerous waivers and the contraception mandate.
When the government can regulate and dictate every aspect of your life won’t America be a wonderful place to live. The American people have a chioce between “free” things and freedom. They are increasingly voting for the “free” government handouts and intervention over of freedom. Unfortunatey we will all have to live in the oppressive society that they deserve!! Liberals own the MSM and put out all of there own propoganda. It hasbecome so one-sided that it can only be described as that. The bulk of the Conservatives who remain are more concerned with being labeled as Right-Wing nuts then standing up for Liberty. This holds true for those few remaining in the media and the vast majority of politicians. I’m afraid that the vile Left has won. National Socialism/Marxism is the next stop… And it is becoming a very short trip!
I am not for regulating every aspect of our life but I do see some industry that could use some regulating. How about the arms industry. Decimate them. War profiteering is not a right and should not be protected.
Order & Balance are maintained by morality or military. One is self-imposed the other is forced. If companies are determined to rape the people by overcharging and underproviding to squeeze every profit they can out of greed… they will be FORCED to behave. They have done it to themselves. I don’t like it but these corporate morons screwed everybody, including themselves.
WE ARE NEXT…