Supreme Court upholds Obama’s health-care law

Supreme Court upholds Obama’s health-care law
By Robert Barnes
June 28, 2012
Washington Post

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday joined the liberal wing of the Supreme Court to save the heart of President Obama’s landmark health-care law, agreeing that the requirement for nearly all Americans to secure health insurance is permissible under Congress’s taxing authority.

Even as it upheld that central component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, however, the court modified another key provision of the law, ruling that the federal government cannot withdraw existing Medicaid funding from states that decide not to participate in a broad expansion of Medicaid eligibility.

The court’s historic compromise, which will affect the health-care choices of millions of Americans, amounts to a major victory for the White House less than five months before the November elections, although the Medicaid decision sets new limits on the power of the national government.

President Obama welcomed the ruling, which he called “a victory for people all over this country whose lives will be more secure.” He said the decision would allow the health-care law to offer millions of currently uninsured Americans “an array of quality, affordable health-insurance plans to choose from” starting in 2014.

“Today the Supreme Court also upheld the principle that people who can afford health insurance should take the responsibility to buy health insurance,” Obama said in televised speech at the White House. He said he knew that this individual mandate “wouldn’t be politically popular” and that the debate over the law “has been divisive.” But he said the law was “good for the country” and “good for the American people.”

“The highest court in the land has now spoken,” Obama said. “We will continue to implement this law. And we’ll work together to improve on it where we can. But what we won’t do, what the country can’t afford to do, is refight the political battles of two years ago or go back to the way things were. With today’s announcement, it’s time for us to move forward.”

Illustrating the divided nature of the ruling, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, representing the court’s most consistent conservatives, read a scathing dissent, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, representing the liberals, issued a separate opinion supporting Roberts but differing with him on key aspects of the case...

Obama healthcare reforms lead to $1.3 billion in insurance rebates

Obama healthcare reforms lead to $1.3 billion in insurance rebates
By Noam N. Levey
April 26, 2012

U.S. consumers and businesses will receive an estimated $1.3 billion in rebates from insurance companies this year, according to a new study quantifying a key early benefit of the healthcare law that President Obama signed in 2010.

That will translate into anywhere from a few dollars to more than $150 for some 15 million consumers nationwide, the new report by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found.

Obama’s healthcare law requires insurers to spend a minimum portion of customers’ premiums on medical care, a provision championed by consumer groups concerned that companies were hiking premiums to pay for executive salaries, shareholder dividends and other expenses unrelated to their customers’ care.

Starting last year, if insurers did not meet these targets – known as medical loss ratios – they had to pay rebates this year to people enrolled in their plans.

The Kaiser study, which analyzed rate documents filed with state regulators nationwide, found 486 health plans nationwide that will be required to pay rebates, with the largest number in the so-called individual market serving people who do not get health coverage through work.

Nearly a third of all consumers in this market, which is widely seen as the most trouble-plagued in the country, will be eligible for a rebate.

Approximately a quarter of consumers in the small group insurance market and less than a fifth of consumers in the large group market qualified for rebates.

The study also found wide variation in states, with insurers selling individual health plans in some states such as Alaska, Maryland and Pennsylvania required to provide average rebates of around $300. In Hawaii and Maine, by contrast, no insurers in the individual market will have to provide rebates.

Data was not available for California because HMOs in the state are not subject to the same reporting requirements...

Insurers Banking their Cash

Insurers Banking their Cash
By The Palm Beach Post
Sept. 30, 2011

Critics of the Affordable Care Act pounced last week on the news that health care premiums went up 9 percent this year. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average family health plan in the U.S. now costs $15,073.

What the critics didn't say was that the year before President Obama signed the law, the cost of an average family policy rose 5 percent. That same year, 2009, the five largest U.S. health insurance companies earned a record $12.2 billion - as 2.7 million Americans lost their private health coverage in the worst year for the economy since the Depression.

This year, some insurers reported double-digit profit increases during the second quarter, and expect to exceed expectations for the year. One reason may be that fewer consumers are seeking medical care in the still-weak economy.

Some of the Affordable Care Act's key portions - the individual mandate, the marketplace-like exchanges - came from Republicans two decades ago. Gov. Scott and other current Republicans who want the health care law repealed say premiums will go down if insurers can compete by selling policies across state lines. Most insurers, however, already have licenses in multiple states. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida recently gave its mental health policies for Florida residents to a Kansas-based company in which it has part ownership.

Objective analysts attribute only about 1 or 2 percentage points in premium increases to the new law's mandates, notably those that require insurers to provide preventive services at no out-of-pocket costs and add adult children to their parents' policies. Those are good changes.

Some analysts believe that insurers are charging more to hedge their bets for when the economy improves and more people seek treatment, and that companies are banking cash before next year, when the law requires them to justify increases. In this case, the health care law is more the target than the problem.

- Rhonda Swan,

for The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board

Appeals court strikes down health overhaul requirement that most Americans must buy insurance

The way I see it, Americans shouldn't have to die or be physically damaged simply because they don't have healthcare. Also, they shouldn't end up financially devastated by illness or injury.

This means we all have to chip in to provide health care for all. Having everyone buy health insurance is one way of doing this. But if this isn't possible, then the only solution I can see is a single-payer system.


Appeals court strikes down health overhaul requirement that most Americans must buy insurance
By Associated Press
August 12, 2011

ATLANTA — A federal appeals court panel on Friday struck down the requirement in President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul package that virtually all Americans must carry health insurance or face penalties.

The divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the so-called individual mandate, siding with 26 states that had sued to block the law. But the panel didn’t go as far as a lower court that had invalidated the entire overhaul as unconstitutional...

Health-care law: Arizona tries new approach to get by federal Medicaid rules

Health-care law: Arizona tries new approach to get by federal Medicaid rules
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post
January 23, 2011

Republican efforts to repeal or limit the reach of the new health-care law took a new direction last week when Arizona lawmakers approved a novel and controversial attempt to cut Medicaid for 280,000 of the state's poor.

The bill, requested and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R), empowers her to make a formal request, most likely this week, for a federal waiver to avoid complying with provisions of the law that prohibit states from tightening their eligibility requirements for Medicaid.

Twenty-nine Republican governors, including Brewer, have signed a letter calling on President Obama and congressional leaders to remove the provision from the law.

But Arizona is the first state to, in effect, play chicken with the Obama administration by directly requesting a reprieve and daring Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to refuse.

The move is widely regarded as a long shot. While a spokesman said the White House had no comment on Arizona's request, administration officials have shown scant interest when asked about the idea in the past.

Still, Arizona's move reflects two pressing realities: Many states face large budget shortfalls because of continuing economic difficulties, and Republican governors point to Medicaid cuts as one of the most logical ways to balance those budgets...

Obama attacks insurance companies for capping coverage and charging "outrageous fees"

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE57D47P20090816?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100
Sat Aug 15, 2009
By Jeff Mason and Matt Spetalnick

GRAND JUNCTION, Colorado (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama reignited his criticism of health insurance companies on Saturday, promising reforms that would prevent firms from capping coverage or charging "outrageous" fees.

Traveling to a conservative area of Colorado, a western state that supported Obama in the 2008 election, the president continued his assault on companies that the White House has painted as being at the root of the country's healthcare woes while defending his proposals to fix the system.

"Insurance companies will no longer be able to ... place an arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive or charge outrageous out-of-pocket expenses on top of your premiums," Obama told the crowd of roughly 1,500 people.

"No one in America should go broke because they get sick," he said to loud applause.