Health Insurance Rates Drop 60%

Health care reform will result in lower health insurance rates, up to 60% lower than current rates. Yes, health care reform seems to be working . . . for those who live in Maine.  

Falling health insurance rates due to health care reform is the lead in of a post at The Maine Wire.

PL 90, the free market based health reform law, was passed last March by a Republican majority in Maine’s legislature. Governor Paul LePage signed the bill in a ceremony at the statehouse amid cries from Democrats that it wasn’t right for Maine.

Well that's a twist.


Republican health care reform but Democrat's protest the move.
The law has resulted in a drop in rates for small group plans but individual rates are expected to drop as much as 60% . . . for some age groups . . .


Maine has two provisions on the books that make health insurance premiums unaffordable for most folks. Community rating and guaranteed issue, two things that are cornerstones of Obamacare, drive premium rates through the roof.


Community rating means essentially everyone pays the same rate, regardless of age or gender. Guaranteed issue means anyone can buy coverage, regardless of their health or existing medical conditions.


In the parlance of Obamacrap, "Insurance companies can no longer discriminate against you because you have a pre-existing condition".


The flip side of that argument is, "Insurance companies will be allowed to charge significantly higher premiums to those who are healthy to pay for the claims of those who have expensive medical conditions".


That is analogous to auto insurance carriers charging drivers with perfect records the same rate as one who has had multiple DUI's and speeding violations. Or banks imposing much higher interest rates to the most creditworthy so they can also extend credit to those with severely damaged credit.

PL 90, the health reform law that Republicans guided through the legislature despite passionate opposition from Democrats, expanded the “rate bands” to allow a wider variation in cost between different aged applicants. In the past, insurance companies had to treat a 21-year-old and 55-year-old as basically the same. The new law allows for distinction in age groups. 

Once the new rates are approved, a 21 year old will pay $215 per month for a plan with a $2,000 deductible. Before health care reform, that person would pay $448 per month.


The rates are still high, mostly because the guaranteed issue provisions remain in play, but are much more affordable. A healthy 21 year old in Atlanta, Georgia could buy a comparable plan from Cigna for $98 per month.


So the Obamacrap-like guaranteed issue provisions mean healthy people will still pay double the normal premium so everyone can have health insurance.

Seems fair, right?

“Getting more young people into the market is a major plus for all Mainers and was a primary goal of the law,” Allumbaugh notes. “As this happens, the claims experience tends to improve and it can lower the rates even further for all age groups,” Allumbaugh said.“This is precisely the impact the health reform law aimed for, lowering rates generally, but in a way that helps our insurance markets reverse the death spiral and begin to grow.”

Death spiral. Now that's a word you don't hear every day.


Hyper-regulation by the Maine Department of Insurance has resulted in most health insurance carriers leaving the state. Anthem Blue Cross controls most of the health insurance market in Maine. Less competition, higher rates.


The same thing we will have in 2014 when Obamacrap is in play.


How is this health care reform idea working for you?


About as well as hope and change.

Java Overboard!

A few years ago, we noted that even just a few cups of coffee each day might help "slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease and even reverse the condition."

Turns out, more may be even better, because loading up on the brew may actually help with longevity:

"[M]en who drank at least six cups of coffee a day had a 10 percent lower chance of dying during the 14-year study period than those who drank none. For women, the risk was 15 percent lower"

And it's not necessarily the caffeine, either; regular and decaf see similar results.

I do have a problem with the article's headline, though:

"6 cups a day? Coffee lovers less likely to die, study finds"

Really? Last I looked, the risk of dying is pretty much 100%, beverage of choice notwithstanding.

Be Careful What You Wish For . . .

The folks at Consumer Reports open their mail bag . . .


I'm pregnant. Can my health plan refuse maternity coverage?

Q. I thought I had completed my family, and was confident of never getting pregnant again because I had an IUD. So we bought an individual family plan from Blue Shield of California that excludes pregnancy. But I got pregnant anyway. I asked to be moved to a plan that covers pregnancy, and was denied because of my "pre-existing condition." Is this legit?

A. It sure is. In every health-plan underwriting manual I have ever seen, pregnancy is on the list of conditions that will get you turned down flat for new individual coverage.Moreover, the vast majority of health plans sold to individuals exclude maternity coverage. A recent study of some 3,300 individual policies by the National Women's Law Center, a Washington, D.C. advocacy group, found that only 12 percent included maternity coverage, and half of those were in the handful of states with laws that require it. In a few states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, and South Carolina, not a single plan available to a 30-year-old woman included maternity coverage.

In other states, you can get limited maternity coverage through an add-on rider that costs extra, but typically must wait a year or more before the benefits kick in, meanwhile paying an additional premium that may cost more than the basic policy itself.

"You can buy coverage in $1,000 or $2,000 increments, but by the time you've waited, you get back $100 or so if it's a normal delivery," says Judy Waxman, the center's vice president for health and reproductive rights. "It's just not worth it."This is one of many ways that individual health insurance is inferior to group coverage, which has included maternity care without exception for years.

But you, dear California resident, are in luck. Last year, California became the ninth state to pass a law requiring all individual health plans to cover maternity care. The new law takes effect July 1, 2012. According to a spokeswoman for Blue Shield of California, as of that date, the new benefit will automatically be added to all the company's individual plans, starting immediately. If your due date is any time after that, your remaining expenses for prenatal care and delivery will be covered.

The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, will fix this problem for good. As of Jan. 1, 2014, all individual health plans sold in the U.S. must include maternity coverage. And you can sign up for a plan even if you're already pregnant, because insurers won't be able to turn you down for any pre-existing condition.

Yes dear readers, Obamacare will "fix" all that. Starting in 2014 all major medical plans will be required to cover maternity. Not only will men have to pay for maternity coverage, but so will pre-menstrual girls, post-menopausal women, sterilized women and those who, for any number of reasons, are unable to get pregnant.

Everyone will see their rates increase. How much? We will get an idea by looking at California.

Expect Dave Fluker to post something on his blog as soon as July rates are released, but don't expect it to be pretty.

All this is part of that spreading around the wealth thing.

Cavalcade of Risk #157 now online!

Dennis Wall presents this week's collection of risk-related posts. Please drop by.

Dying for a quiet ride

File this under "Risky Unintended Consequences:"

"Hybrids are so quiet that pedestrians never hear them coming ... NHTSA studies ... confirmed what many long suspected: Hybrids and electric cars are too quiet for the blind or even the fully sighted to hear them coming."

Ooops.

On the other hand, I was taught to always look both ways before crossing the street.

Of course, that doesn't really apply to the sight-impaired, who count on a certain noise level to assess risk before stepping off the curb. 'Tis a puzzler.

Then again, maybe not:

"Thanks to the Pedestrian Safety Act of 2010 ... the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration is required to initiate a rulemaking process for minimal vehicle noise—not how quiet, but how loud a car must be." [emphasis in original]

"Initiate a process." As in, start to consider the idea of a study to determine how to proceed.

How many people will die (or be seriously injured) while they commission the blue ribbon panel?

And the problem's only going to get worse, of course, as more and more electric and hybrid cars roll off the assembly lines and into traffic. The good news is that the Chevy Volt contains its own vehicle announcement system:

Tuesday Morning LinkFest

■ We recently learned how resveratrol, a compound found (for example) in red wines, works. But that's not all: turns out, it's also potentially useful in combating the effects of Alzheimer's.

■ The 'web can be a very useful and powerful tool for critiquing vendors, but be careful whom you critique and how:

"Two years ago, Dennis Laurion logged on to a rate-your-doctor website to vent about a Duluth, Minnesota neurologist ... McKee wasn't amused. He sued Laurion for defamation"

It may well be that the truth is a valid defense, but prudence is always a valid idea.

■ From FoIB Jeff M, we learn that upcoming Medicare changes are going to be very costly for at least one hospital - and the odds are good that this isn't going to be an exclusive club.

■ Is this something? The Feds are starting to "audit" ObamneyCare© compliance, including double-checking "grandfathering" status.

And even MORE ObamaFail©

In case you missed it yesterday:

Now what does that banner remind me of?