Thursday, September 24, 2020

Making the regulation of Medical Insurance better!

Political ads and talking heads say - ACA is great - need to make it better! Really! Much of what is reported on the ACA is not correct  Working with Individuals and small employers I can list many issues. However, instead, I am sharing some research on what the health reform regulations in the ACA did. 

The research was reported in a Sept 23rd Forbes article. You can find all the details here.

The Galan Institute created a summary of the article. I am sharing two parts of it here between [snip].  I added bold to emphasize some of the Galan text.

[snip]

Blase notes that despite spending $50 billion in taxpayer money on premium subsidies, individual market enrollment is up by just 2 million people from pre-ACA levels—a staggering $25,000 tab per newly insured. Exchange enrollment is 60 percent below expectations given how unattractive the products are to middle-income families. 

[snip]

[snip]

"Calling the law ‘The Medicaid Expansion Act’ seems more appropriate than ever since 100 percent of the net reduction in the uninsured has occurred because of Medicaid. A massive expansion of Medicaid—a welfare program that traditionally served low-income children, pregnant women, seniors, and individuals with disabilities—is not what the ACA’s proponents talked about when selling the law to the American people."

Fortunately, the policies of President Trump reversed some of this damage. Blase discusses actions to shore up the exchanges as well as expand more affordable options through Association Health Plans (AHPs) and short-term plans. 
 
A Council of Economic Advisers report found that these expanded options, along with eliminating the individual mandate tax penalty, generate $45 billion in net economic benefit each year for Americans. 
 

And the Trump administration’s health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) rule, which allows employers to offer tax-free payments that workers can use to purchase individual market coverage, is expected to add 8 million people to the market—four times as many as the ACA with no new federal spending. 
 
While the Trump administration made great strides to help Americans harmed by the ACA, Blase argues that “A better approach would be freeing people to purchase coverage that best meets their needs and budgets, allowing states to establish safety net programs to ensure people with pressing health care needs receive the care they need, and transitioning as much government assistance as possible directly to consumers rather than funneled to health insurers.”

[snip]


Want to specifically refer to certain words from the Galan summary - "as well as expand more affordable options through Association Health Plans (AHPs) and short-term plans. "

This refers to a federal program created to allow states to implement two ways to help individuals.  Guess what!  - CT decided individuals here in CT can not take advantage of these programs to save - they were not approved.


John C Parker, RHU, LTCP

Niantic CT