Sunday, June 13, 2010

A Feature, Not a Bug

Anyone surprised?


Internal White House documents reveal that 51% of employers may have to relinquish their current health care coverage by 2013 due to ObamaCare. That numbers soars to 66% for small-business employers.

The documents — product of a joint project of the Labor Department, the Health and Human Services Department and the IRS — examine the effects new regulations would have on existing, or “grandfathered,” employer-based health care plans.

It's pretty easy to see why. Regulations kick in for these reasons, and there are others:

Under interim regulations, current employer-based coverage would not be grandfathered and hence subject to the health care laws’ consumer provisions if:

* The plan eliminates benefits related to diagnosis or treatment of a particular condition.

* The plan increases the percentage of a cost-sharing requirement (such as co-insurance) above the level at which it was on March 23, 2010.

* The plan increases the fixed amount of cost sharing such as deductibles or out-of-pocket limits by a total percentage measured from March 23, 2010, that is more than the sum of medical inflation plus 15 percentage points.

* The plan increases co-payments as a total percentage measured from March 23, 2010, that is more than the sum of medical inflation plus 15 percentage points or medical inflation plus $5.

* The employer’s share of the premium decreases more than 5 percentage points below what the share was on March 23, 2010.

Health care plans operate at very low profit margins. These requirements pretty much guarantee that most plans will have the choice of operating at a loss or going out of business, unless the medical providers are willing to take a haircut. Ask the nurses who went on strike this week how they'd like that.

6 comments:

Gino said...

the cost will definately have to go up. i know mine will.

i cant be in a plan with additional, mandated coverages and expect it to be the same price.

and i dont know who with a brain thought they could.

K-Rod said...

Sounds like Gino has already signed off on this monstrosity. Sorry, not me. This steaming pile of crap has to be fixed. If not for you, do it for our future generations. Apathy is not the answer.

Mr. D said...

K-Rod,

I didn't read Gino's answer that way at all. He's agreeing with me about how the mechanism will work. That's not the same as saying he's signed off on it. The matter of repeal will come later and the argument will become even stronger as people start to realize what's happening.

Rick Moses said...

Let's see. The mandates force employers to drop health care coverage. That forces thousands into a government program. For older employees near retirement that should be frightening. A whole life of responsibility and good decisions count for nothing. Your very life could now be potentially dependent on a handful of bureacrats. Death by death panel is now a very real possibility. No longer just a Sarah Palin quip.

K-Rod said...

Well, then, I will correct him:

Unless this monstrosity of a law is repealed the cost will definitely go up.

or

The cost will definitely go up unless this monstrosity of a law is repealed.



Mr. D,

ObamaNationCare is specifically designed to kick in over years... before we know it we will be frog stew and it will be too late.

Mr. D said...

K-Rod,

I think we all agree about that, we just state it a little differently. The whole thing has been a Trojan horse for socialized medicine from the get-go.

Rick,

Yep. That's 100% correct.