Viewing entries tagged with 'BN'
BREAKING NEWS: Bloomberg Reports that Biz Groups Say Grandfathering Regulations Are Too Restrictive
Posted by The Campaign on August 17, 2010 at 2:26 PM
Another day, another story on another regulation. This time it's a story on the grandfathering regulation and comments offered by various employer groups and trade associations. Bloomberg picks up the story:
"‘Grandfathering' rules designed to let employees keep their existing coverage plans as the U.S. health-care system is overhauled are too rigid for many employers to comply with, according to business groups. In written responses during a public-comment period that ended yesterday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and the National Association of Manufacturers said many employers won't be able to maintain health plans under rules that limit a company's ability to control rising costs."
"The Chamber of Commerce, the largest U.S. business advocacy group, said in its written comment that its first concern is with the restriction on cost-sharing. 'By so severely restricting changes in cost-sharing, the regulations will effectively force plans to lose grandfathered status in order to remain solvent,' the chamber wrote."
For the full story, click here.
BREAKING NEWS: New Survey Shows Employers Think Costs Will Rise Under New Reform law
Posted by The Campaign on May 26, 2010 at 6:47 AM
Throughout the health care reform debate, there were many voices that raised concerns about the issue of health care costs and whether the new reform law would adequately address in a meaningful way the ever increasing growth in costs. One of those voices was America's employers, and while they regularly raised the issue of costs, the law seemed to have ignored those concerns and did not effectively develop long term strategies on this issue.
It is not surprise then that a survey released yesterday by Towers Watson shows that employers' concerns about health care costs has not abated. Click here for the full survey, and read below for some highlights as reported in an AP story from today:
"Big companies think health care reform will hike their costs..."
"...94 percent of those that responded believe the reform law passed by Congress earlier this year will raise costs."
"Some companies could see small reform-related cost hikes next year, after the start of provisions that ban lifetime maximums for benefits and extend coverage of young adult dependents on parental plans to age 26."
"Containing health care costs was an essential or high priority for 96 percent of survey respondents..."
BREAKING NEWS: White House Releases Outline of New Health Care Reform Proposal
Posted by The Campaign on February 22, 2010 at 6:05 AM
This morning the White House released its health care reform proposal.
Click here to read the outline of the proposal.
BREAKING NEWS: Forbes Magazine Examines How Current Reform Proposals Will Not Lower Costs
Posted by The Campaigns on January 18, 2010 at 12:08 PM
The debate over whether the current reform proposals will lower costs continues, and it seems that the CW is moving toward the idea that we have talked about in this blog -- current reform proposals will not do enough to lower costs.
Forbes magazine picks up on this story and examines what will happen to people's health insurance costs.
Here are a few key excerpts:
"If you're thinking the legislation will tamp down overall health care spending, reconsider. Policy analysts ranging from the neutral Congressional Budget Office to the HMO lobby see no abatement in the growth rate of health care spending."
"The premium hikes will result from cost shifting, better known as passing the buck. The House and Senate insurance bills aim to cover their costs in part by cutting annual Medicare reimbursements to hospitals, doctors and drug companies by $45 billion. Those providers will likely try to offset the cuts by negotiating higher rates with private HMOs--which then get passed along through higher premiums. That's exactly what occurred after past Medicare and Medicaid cuts, according to the CBO analysis."
"Also, the legislation requires HMOs to pay $7 billion annually in new fees. That will get passed on to individuals and employers who buy the policies."
"The biggest losers, or rather spenders, will be those who currently pay for their own insurance but make more than four times the federal poverty level, a multiple that comes to $88,200 for a family of four. They will not be eligible for subsidies. The CBO calculated premiums for that group will rise 10% to 13% above and beyond the increases that could be expected without new laws."
"...rest assured premium increases will occur as costs trickle down from doctors, hospitals and HMOs looking to cover their costs."
For the full article click here.
BREAKING NEWS: NFIB Opposes Senate Reform Bill
Posted by The Campaign on December 08, 2009 at 7:10 PM
Tonight, National Federation of Independent Business released a letter in opposition to the Senate health care reform proposal. Here are some key excerpts from the letter:
As the Senate continues to debate the future of comprehensive healthcare reform, the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’s leading small business association, is writing in opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590).
The most recent CBO study detailing the effect that H.R. 3590 will have on insurance premiums reinforces that, despite claims by its supporters, the bill will not deliver the widely-promised help to the small business community. Instead, CBO findings report that the bill will increase non-group premiums by 10 to 13 percent and result in, at best, a 2 percent decrease for small group coverage by 2016. These findings tell small business all it needs to know – that the current bill does not do enough to reduce costs for small business owners and their employees.
Despite the inclusion of insurance market reforms in the small-group and individual marketplaces, the savings that may materialize are too small for too few and the increase in premium costs are too great for too many. Those costs, along with greater government involvement, higher taxes and new mandates that are disproportionately targeted at small business and are being used to finance H.R. 3590, create a reality that is worse than the status quo for small business.
...the excessively tight age rating (3:1) in H.R. 3590 will increase more costs than it will decrease, and make coverage unaffordable for the very populations that are most beneficial to the insurance pool – the young and the healthy. Independent actuaries have analyzed the negative impact of such tight bands and have indicated that there will be devastating effects to the long-term viability of a pool without action to correct this rating imbalance.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is short on savings and long on costs, is the wrong reform, at the wrong time and will increase healthcare costs and the cost of doing business.
For the full letter click here.
BREAKING NEWS: Sen. Lieberman (I-Conn) Strongly Opposes GRP in Final Bill
Posted by The Campaign on October 27, 2009 at 11:04 AM
"Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill."
"We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now."
"Lieberman added that he’d vote against a public option plan “even with an opt-out because it still creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line.""
“I can’t see a way in which I could vote for cloture on any bill that contained a creation of a government-operated-run insurance company,” Lieberman added. “It’s just asking for trouble – in the end, the taxpayers are going to pay and probably all people will have health insurance are going to see their premiums go up because there’s going to be cost shifting as there has been for Medicare and Medicaid.”
For the full article, click here.
BREAKING NEWS -- Associated Press -- US health care tab would grow under overhaul
Posted by The Campaign on October 21, 2009 at 2:07 PM
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR (AP)
WASHINGTON — The nation's health care tab would increase even more under legislation in the House, according to a government report released Wednesday.
The analysis by the Health and Human Services Department looks at the impact of the health care bill drafted by House Democratic leaders. It concludes that total national health care spending would increase by an additional 2.1 percent from 2010-2019, mostly because newly insured people would seek medical care.
While previous cost estimates have focused on the effects of the legislation on the federal government and the deficit, the latest analysis by career government economists looks at the impact on the U.S. economy as a whole. It raises questions about the Obama administration's claim that health care legislation will "bend the cost curve" and slow a spending rate that many economists say is already unsustainable.
The report found that health care would account for 21.3 percent of the U.S. economy in 2019, slightly more than an estimated share of 20.8 percent of the economy if no bill passes.
"With the exception of the proposed reductions in Medicare ... (the legislation) would not have a significant impact on future health care cost growth rates," said the report from the Medicare Office of the Actuary. It's "doubtful" that proposed Medicare cuts will stay in place, the analysts concluded.
Tens of millions of newly insured people could put a strain on the health care system.
"The additional demand for health services could be difficult to meet initially with existing health provider resources and could lead to price increases, cost-shifting and/or changes in providers' willingness to treat patients with low-reimbursement health coverage," the report said.
Republicans said the report validates their concerns that the sweeping changes proposed by President Barack Obama and other Democrats fail to address the nation's medical costs problem.
"The Democrats' bill will not reduce the amount America spends on health care," said Rep. David Camp, R-Mich., the ranking GOP member of the House Ways and Means Committee. "It will only make the situation worse."
BREAKING NEWS: AP Story on Increased Costs Caused by Senate Finance Proposal
Posted by The Campaign on October 11, 2009 at 8:33 PM
The Associated Press is out with another story on the new PricewaterhouseCoopers' report highlighting the increased costs for individuals and families as a result of proposals from the Senate Finance Committee. Here are some key excerpts:
"...a new accounting firm study that projects the legislation would add $1,700 a year to the cost of family coverage in 2013, when most of the major provisions in the bill would be in effect. Premiums for a single person would go up by $600 more than would be the case without the legislation, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers analysis concluded."
"The study projected that in 2019, family premiums could be $4,000 higher and individual premiums could be $1,500 higher."
"It concluded that a combination of factors in the bill — and decisions by lawmakers as they amended it — would raise costs."
"Other factors leading to higher costs include a new tax on high-cost health insurance plans, cuts in Medicare payments to hospitals and doctors, and a series of new taxes on insurers and other health care industries, the report said."
Click here for the full article."'Health reform could have a significant impact on the cost of private health insurance coverage,' it concluded.""...the industry stopped short of signaling all-out opposition. 'We will continue to work with policymakers in support of workable bipartisan reform,' Ignagni said in her memo."
BREAKING NEWS: The Washington Post -- New Bill Would Raise Rates, Says Insurance Group
Posted by The Campaign on October 11, 2009 at 7:33 PM
The Washington Post has a breaking news story about the negative impact of the the Senate Finance Committee's bill on health care costs. The story focuses on a report conducted for AHIP by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Here are some key excerpts from the story:
"The report makes clear that several major provisions in the current legislative proposal will cause health care costs to increase far faster and higher than they would under the current system..."
"Between 2010 and 2019 the cumulative increases in the cost of a typical family policy under this reform proposal will be approximately $20,700 more than it would be under the current system."
"'Market reform enacted in the absence of universal coverage will increase costs dramatically for many who are currently insured by creating a powerful incentive for people to wait until they are sick to purchase coverage,' the authors of the report wrote."
For the full story click here.
BREAKING NEWS: Senator Blanch Lincoln Says Government-run Plan Too Expensive
Posted by The Campaign on September 02, 2009 at 8:05 AM
Check out this story out of Arkansas:
"U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln said today she opposes a public health insurance option because it would be too expensive."
For the full story, click here.
