Rules finalized for the good stuff in Obamacare

[ProSense]

Rules finalized for the good stuff in Obamacare

by Joan McCarter

The bulk of the most popular stuff of the Affordable Care act hasn't gone into effect yet, but the regulations for it have been finalized, so insurance companies will have plenty of time to get used to the fact that there are going to be real limits on how much they can screw you starting next year.

Those new regulations hit the five key consumer protections:

• Guaranteed Availability
  Nearly all health insurance companies offering coverage to individuals and employers will be required to sell health insurance policies to all consumers. No one can be denied health insurance because they have or had an illness.
  
  
• Fair Health Insurance Premiums
  Health insurance companies offering coverage to individuals and small employers will only be allowed to vary premiums based on age, tobacco use, family size, and geography. Basing premiums on other factors will be illegal. The factors that are no longer permitted in 2014 include health status, past insurance claims, gender, occupation, how long an individual has held a policy, or size of the small employer.
  
  
• Guaranteed Renewability
  Health insurance companies will no longer refuse to renew coverage because an individual or an employee has become sick. You may renew your coverage at your option.
  
  
• Single Risk Pool
  Health insurance companies will no longer be able to charge higher premiums to higher cost enrollees by moving them into separate risk pools. Insurers are required to maintain a single state-wide risk pool for the individual market and single state-wide risk pool for the small group market.
  
  
• Catastrophic Plans
  Young adults and people for whom coverage would otherwise be unaffordable will have access to a catastrophic plan in the individual market. Catastrophic plans generally will have lower premiums, protect against high out-of-pocket costs, and cover recommended preventive services without cost sharing.

This is the stuff that's going to make Obamacare no longer a dirty word. It's also the stuff that's going to lessen opposition to a larger federal government role in all of our health care, a good starting point to the much larger, systemic reforms that are still going to have to happen to fix health care in America.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/22/1189127/-Rules-finalized-for-the-good-stuff-in-nbsp-Obamacare

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Too clever by half, perhaps

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/14555/scabs_recruited_new_england_stop_shop_strike/

The President's lacing up his comfortable shoes as I write this, no doubt.

[ProSense]

2. How Obamacare Will Help Extend Health Care To Part-Time Workers

First, from the link you provided:

More part-time workers are expected to be covered by insurance, but there is little agreement on how it will be paid for, he says. Insurance exchanges may provide a solution, but such exchanges are so new that contract negotiators are unsure how they will work, Goins continues. Maryland’s own proposed exchange, for example, is not expected to be in operation until late 2013–at the same time that the current Giant Food-UFCW contract expires. Threatening workers with the widespread use of scab labor does not seem to be a particularly productive tactic, Goins adds. In the case of Baltimore-area workers, the threats worked to create greater union solidarity among the members, he says.

Still, I'm not sure what your post has to do with the OP? Do you think Obama is responsible for the actions of supermarket chain? Or are you happy to see that these workers are negotiating better health insurance as mandated by ACA?

How Obamacare Will Help Extend Health Care To Part-Time Workers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022309389

Obama Administration Aims To Fix Loophole Letting Home Health Workers Make Less Than Minimum Wage
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022403409

[steve2470]

3. k&r nt

[sheshe2]

4. K&R

Yes!

[ProSense]

5. Kick! n/t

[nobodyspecial]

6. So what do you do if your state

has refused to enact the plan and won't implement it? Will you still be able to get low-income subsidies?

[ProSense]

7. Then the

"So what do you do if your state has refused to enact the plan and won't implement it?"

...federal government implements it: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022398727

[jazzimov]

8. K&R!

[quadrature]

9. has anyone received a quote yet?

nt

[ProSense]

10. ? n/t

[quadrature]

12. price quote for a policy .nt

[rgbecker]

13. Massachusetts has been quoting for years.

Will be hard for older folks to afford the rates.

[a kennedy]

11. This is great.....and can always be improved upon.....

[bvar22]

14. Lots of Wiggle Room in these "regulations".

Guaranteed Availability
Nearly all health insurance companies offering coverage to individuals and employers will be required to sell health insurance policies to all consumers. No one can be denied health insurance because they have or had an illness.

But can they deny coverage for other reasons?
Like Bad Credit because one was driven into bankruptcy trying to pay off a Health debt?

Fair Health Insurance Premiums
Health insurance companies offering coverage to individuals and small employers will [font size=3]only be allowed to vary premiums based on age, tobacco use, family size, and geography.[/font] Basing premiums on other factors will be illegal. The factors that are no longer permitted in 2014 include health status, past insurance claims, gender, occupation, how long an individual has held a policy, or size of the small employer.

Yep! No Wiggle Room there!

Its a good thing that our Health Insurance Industry has such a good track record of honesty, fairness, and concern for their customers,
because any good Scam Artist would be laughing at these "regulations",
and opening another account in the Caymens.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[ProSense]

15. Newflash:

Fair Health Insurance Premiums
Health insurance companies offering coverage to individuals and small employers will only be allowed to vary premiums based on age, tobacco use, family size, and geography. Basing premiums on other factors will be illegal. The factors that are no longer permitted in 2014 include health status, past insurance claims, gender, occupation, how long an individual has held a policy, or size of the small employer.

Yep! No Wiggle Room there!

Premiums already vary in such cases. In fact, the health care law capped and lowered the age rating.

[bvar22]

17. So my don't see this as a problem?

I do.

[ProSense]

16. Would you mind

commenting in this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022421084

Thanks.