$1 Billion In Rebates Coming Under ‘Obamacare’

[ProSense]

$1 Billion In Rebates Coming Under ‘Obamacare’

Under a provision in President Obama’s health reform law, health insurance companies are expected to rebate more than $1 billion to consumers and employers this year if they don’t spend enough of in premiums that they collect, reports the Wall Street Journal:

The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which calculated total rebates at $1.3 billion, says that around $426 million will go to people who bought their own health plans; $541 million will go to large employers and $377 million to small businesses.

In a separate analysis based on the same filings, Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Borsch estimated the total rebates at around $1.2 billion.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/1-billion-in-rebates-coming-under-obamacare

[democrat_patriot]

1. Suck that teabaggers

No, really.

[goclark]

24. Teabags shouldn't be able to get a refund

cause they are stupid enough to think they are in the " One %."

They don't get it ~ they are being USED!

[cbdo2007]

2. Cool....I expect those checks to arrive in the mail by about October 10th.

Really our President is a very brilliant strategist.

[jwirr]

3. "people who bought their own policies" - who does that all include? I am asking if it includes

people on Medicare who pay premiums through ss?

[shraby]

10. I'm wondering about the supplemental policies people on Medicare have to carry.

[frazzled]

4. I felt the impact of the health reform law yesterday for the first time!

My husband and I both had to go in for physicals (not that we wanted to, but both of our prescriptions were about to expire, and this required a visit). Afterward, I went to the desk to check out and asked what co-pay I owed them. "Nothing," she said, "your insurance is probably going to cover the whole thing." I said, "Oh, is that because of the new preventive care provision in the health care law (even though, I think, it hasn't gone into full effect yet)?" She said she thought so, and that many of the insurance companies were just going ahead and doing it; said she'd contact us if ours did not.

Small thing, but nice recompense for the pain of having to be told for the third time to go get a colonoscopy and having to admit I'd not yet done it.

[jtuck004]

5. Woohoo. They keep 20 billion for their few dozen families, rebate 1 billion to 10 million people.

The little people are content once again.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Yeah, yeah, a good thing. Would be better if the overhead was only 3%, which is what your neighbors charge when they work for the government (Medicare). The insurance cos charge 15%.

Go ahead and be happy, but that trickle-down ain't rain falling...

[ProSense]

7. A benefit

"Go ahead and be happy, but that trickle-down ain't rain falling..."

...is not "trickle-down," and despite the inappropriate cliche, the bill has nothing to do with "trickle-down." For many, it's about life.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002613348

[jtuck004]

11. That's all very nice if they can afford insurance

though there are perhaps 50 million who can't, which seems a more dire need. I can't help thinking that if more of those dollars went into health care, (say people doing research to lower the costs that are going to deny care soon), instead of the wad which goes to, mostly, a very few for-profit "greedy pockets" in corporations, we would all be better off.

But that's just me. I have always thought that working toward opportunity and a plan to provide it for (today 25 million, and growing) who need jobs or more work just to live would be a better strategy and result in a stronger country than chortling about past work or failures or funneling _profit_ to corporations. This health insurance bill does that by the bucketful. Big dollars, big profits, immoral salaries on taxpayer dollars. And a few good things.

I get your point, though. For those whose perspective allows them to be satisfied with the above, I say Good Cheer! Happy to be in the room! Kick the can, woohoo, what a party, and all that.

I'm going to the bar...

[ProSense]

12. Well,

"That's all very nice if they can afford insurance though there are perhaps 50 million who can't, which seems a more dire need."

...when you start with a premise using the current number of unemployed, it's easy to see where the point goes off.

The health care law specifically reduces the number of uninsured by more than 32 million, including 16 million new Medicaid recipients: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002531684

That's not "trickle-down."

[jtuck004]

13. If you say so. Happy times!! n/t

[Ikonoklast]

15. Going to a bar is funneling money to corporations.

That doesn't bother you, though.

[jtuck004]

19. What bothers me are seniors that don't eat because there is no food.

Not insipid posts on the Internet.

[Ikonoklast]

22. Then do something about it. Directly.

I volunteer at a food bank.

Life is not a zero-sum game.

[patrice]

27. ACA implemented Research on health care dollar efficiencies, you say?

http://www.pcori.org/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/pcori-funny-acronym-serious-work/2012/01/18/gIQAhSxk8P_blog.html

[jtuck004]

29. Good work, it appears. If costs continue to crowd out patients maybe it will

ease their communication challenge.

Thanks for that.

[patrice]

30. One of the important traits of the PCORI is that it is being built out of data obtained from

the patients themselves and their care-giverS. PCORI can be a tool by means of which people can interact with insurance companies on the matter of coverage. We won't have to just take their word for what they should, should not, pay for. The PCORI will also be good for the patients' relationships with doctors too. Perhaps it will reduce trial-and-error treatments. It could also be a means by which the efficiency of premium dollars can be critiqued.

The PCORI was only just recently initiated. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

[patrice]

28. Does anyone explain to those demographics that none of that would be possible without

the last, and least popular, item in that list?

[MannyGoldstein]

6. That's five-hundredths of one percent of healthcare spending

Looking at the bigger picture, ObamaCare is so expensive that Obama himself has asked that the age of eligibility for Medicare be raised by two years to save money. This will cost consumers many, many billions.

[ProSense]

8. Guess what?

"Looking at the bigger picture, ObamaCare is so expensive that Obama himself has asked that the age of eligibility for Medicare be raised by two years to save money. This will cost consumers many, many billions."

That's tired and fact-free, give it up. Yawn!

Revel in the facts: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002599800

[MannyGoldstein]

14. Are you saying that ObamaCare reduces the federal budget? nt

[frazzled]

21. It definitely reduces the deficit

And any articles that argue otherwise (and contridicting the CBO) are from right-wing sources.

[railsback]

9. Interestingly

The 'Baggers over at FOX are insisting they want to send their rebate checks back to the insurance companies AND pay their co-pays. The hate runs deep there.

[eyewall]

18. so does the stupid.

[deacon]

16. Awesome. A significant improvement. n/t

[Iliyah]

17. WOW

just WOW.

[Scurrilous]

20. K & R

[bluestate10]

23. Rightwing bloggers were red faced when the news hit.

Teabagging rightwing nuts have wet dreams at night imagining that health care reform is failing, when in the cold reality of day, the exact opposite is the case.

[patrice]

25. "... if they don't spend enough in (sic) premiums they collect ..." ON CARE, i.e. .85 on the dollar.

[flamingdem]

26. yay nt