U.S. health insurers to pay $330 million in premium rebates

[n2doc]

Source: Reuters

U.S. health insurers will send out about $330 million in rebates to employers and individuals this summer under President Barack Obama's healthcare law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday.

The law, often called Obamacare, requires insurance companies to refund customers when they spend less than 80 percent or 85 percent of healthcare premiums they collect for medical care.

The rebates will go to about 6.8 million people and have a value of about $80 per family. They are to be sent by Aug. 1 either directly to consumers or to the employer providing the health coverage, who is required to pass the savings onto employees, the agency said in a report.

The total rebate figure is less than last year, when the insurers were told to send out $500 million under the law. The decline is a trend that the government said shows that more insurers are charging lower premiums than they would have if the law was not passed.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/24/us-usa-healthcare-insurance-idUSKBN0FT09F20140724

[pipoman]

1. A 15% margin is better than a lot of industries make who

Have to actually inventory merchandise investments..

[IronLionZion]

3. It's not all profit, its total administrative expenses

that percentage includes salaries for their workers.

[candelista]

6. Medicare administrative costs are about 3%.

But we can't have medicare for all because that would be... socialism!

[IronLionZion]

9. That is CMS administrative costs for medicare, which is only one portion.

HHS, IRS, SSA, and other entities also have plenty of administrative costs as part of the Medicare system, and the states have plenty of costs for administering Medicaid. And there are around 150,000 contractors in the program.

Look, I support a Medicare for all single payer system too, but their admin costs are much higher than you think. An educated guess would put it closer to 7%, which seems small until you think about the massive size of the Medicare program. We are bigger and cover more patients than any insurance company can even dream about.

Just think about what sort of people who would be processing your claims in a single payer system. Oh yes, it would be people like me! And I'm obviously DUing at work!

[pipoman]

15. Margin is almost never net...most margins require salaries

Etc to come out.

[Botany]

2. And this is one more reason why the repugs want to kill off the ACA ....

.... it is working and they know all their lies are gonna be exposed.

[IronLionZion]

4. Repugs are also terrified that this will lead to single payer

as more Americans benefit from the PPACA, there will be more political support for bigger reforms in the future.

[candelista]

7. They are?

How do you know that? They don't seem scared to me. They should be as happy as a dog with two dicks.

[IronLionZion]

10. Why are they fighting it tooth and nail?

They shut down the government in an idiotic attempt to stop people from signing up.

You can see the comments on any mainstream media news article, or any conservative forum. They don't like it at all and claim it is a socialist vote buying scheme.

[candelista]

11. That's theater to please the base.

They do the same thing on undocumented immigration, which the GOP really loves (because cheap labor) but pretends to hate.

[Doctor_J]

28. It can't possibly lead to single payer

The propaganda onslaught for the middleman multiplication and profit protection act has been an astonishing success. Notice how many duers have fallen in love with the worst healthcare system in the world. A good word for this would be disgusting.

[davidpdx]

5. My first thought when I read the headline was...

conservatives must be pissed.

[bigdarryl]

8. And two DC Court Appeals wingnut judges ruled you can't have that rebate

[MannyGoldstein]

12. Three-hundredths of one percent of private premiums. nt

[riqster]

13. And a 100% increase in rebates over the pre-ACA days.

Parade, meet Manny the Rain-Bringer. Manny, Parade. Get to know each other, pack some ponchos, and tarps for the floats.

[MannyGoldstein]

14. A penny would do that, too.

So what's your point?

[jamzrockz]

16. Its good to be skeptical about things

But for geeze, this is just the first year. Have a little faith

[riqster]

17. My point is that a family's receipt of a rebate is a good thing.

And their receipt of said rebate is due entirely to the ACA.

[MannyGoldstein]

20. You don't think perspective is useful? nt

[riqster]

22. I think that perspectives are of varied utility, depending on context and specifics.

For instance, relativity is an example of useful perspective: one that enabled math and physics to make quantum leaps, if you'll pardon a really terrible pun.

But a relentless, partisan, ideological, personalized, emotion-based perspective is not of equal utility.

[Bill USA]

29. here's some perspective: Premiums wld hve been $3.8 bil HIGHER if MLR remained the same as 2011's

NOte: MLR is the Medical Loss Ratio or how much the insurance companies pay out to policyholders to pay for covered medical costs relative to the insurance companies revenues - i.e. total premiums charged.

... from the same article ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/24/us-usa-healthcare-insurance-idUSKBN0FT09F20140724
(emphases my own)

The total rebate figure is less than last year, when the insurers were told to send out $500 million under the law. The decline is a trend that the government said shows that more insurers are charging lower premiums than they would have if the law was not passed.

The healthcare law was passed in 2010 and the medical loss ratio, or MLR, portion of the law was first applied in full in 2011. It limits spending on administrative costs, salaries and bonuses. Other portions of the law went into effect this year, including the creation of exchanges to sell insurance to individuals as well as the expansion of Medicaid.

[font size="3"]If insurance companies had maintained the 2011 ratio of premiums relative to the cost of medical care, consumers would have spent $3.8 billion more in additional premiums in 2013[/font], the health agency said.

but that is NOT the whole story. Let's not forget the premiums charged by insurance companies. The ACA has reduced the rate of increase of health care costs (the bending of the cost curve).

Affordable Care Act will produce savings for a family of four of ~$2500 by 2016
(all emphases my own)

Before he was criticized for his statements about insurance continuity, President Obama was lambasted for his forecasts of cost savings. In 2007, Obama asserted that his health-care reform plan would save $2,500 per family relative to the trends at the time. The criticism was harsh; I know because I helped the then-senator make this forecast. [font size="3" color="blue"]Yet events have shown him to be right. Between early 2009 and now, the Office of the Actuaries at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has lowered its forecast of medical spending in 2016 by 1 percentage point of GDP. In dollar terms, this is $2,500 for a family of four[/font].

NOte that if you convert the $2,500 for a family of four to an aggregate figure that's a savings of about $3 Trillion - or about 6.6% savings as a percent of the aggregate Health care cost figure.


But what were Republicans predicting for Health care costs with the ACA in place?

For some more perspective lets examine what Republicans have been saying about the affect of the ACA on Healthcare costs. Chris Conover (an "Adjunct Scholar" at American Enterprise Institute), writing not a year ago, in Forbes Magazine stated the Affordable Care act would ADD $7,450 to the Healthcare costs for a typical family of four.

Obamacare Will Increase Health Spending By $7,450 For A Typical Family of Four


I'm happy to go with the estimate of the Office of the Actuaries at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services - which is a savings - in 2016 - of $3 Trillion - or a 6.6% savings.

[DhhD]

32. A Letter comes with the rebate telling you that insurance company over charged you, kept your money

in a pool, and made interest off of it, instead of using your money to provide health care.

[Doctor_J]

27. with guaranteed premiums from everyone, they can spare it

[Doctor_J]

25. yep. And it costs at least five times as much as Medicare

An absolute travesty

[Stuart G]

18. Will the jerks at Fox Lies report this one?...k and r

[underpants]

19. Medical Loss Ratio

https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/medical-loss-ratio-MLR/

[conservaphobe]

21. Extremely good news.

Don't trust anyone who should shit on it as far as I can throw them.

And with my sciatica in overdrive... it's not very far.

[Orsino]

23. More than a dome's worth of difference...

...and even dimes are badly needed by some families.

[libodem]

24. Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talkin' about

[Doctor_J]

26. $80/ year when the premiums are $5000?

It is sickening that dems are celebrating this

[grahamhgreen]

30. Better than a sharp stick in the eye.

[Sunlei]

31. what about the Gov. paid insurance subsidy money. Does the Gov get a lower price?

The Gov. gets a refund from the insurance corp?

My premiums are lower because some 'for profit' hospital/Doctor can't charge its insurance corp buddie $100 for a 3 cent band-aid , and get away with the price gouge scam.

[Initech]

33. $330 million that won't be going to corporate profits!