The Fantasy Of Control

Posted on January 8, 2018 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

The young guy was pacing the waiting room hoping for good news. The news wasn’t good.  The initial diagnosis was that his eight year old Nissan truck needed a new battery.  He agreed to the estimate – $264 for parts and labor.  Was that a good price?  Before either of us had much time to ponder the question, the repair shop’s manager returned with new and even worse information.

“We tried to jump your truck. It won’t turn over.  It looks like you need a new starter.”

A new starter? What happened to the battery?

“A failing starter can weaken the battery. The starter will be $614.  We may not get it done till Monday.  The starter isn’t easy to access on your truck.”

It may have appeared that the young guy had to make a decision, but that really wasn’t the case. He had had a choice, where to receive (car) care.  His truck was having difficulty starting and he picked this particular shop.  He either trusted them or he didn’t.  And if he didn’t, it was too late.  His truck was on the rack.

The manager came out and mentioned that the back brakes didn’t need immediate attention, but would soon. The total cost, battery, starter, brakes, etc… was $1,544.  Shocked, but now empowered with a choice, the young guy agreed to the starter and battery.

There is an illusion of choice, a fantasy of control, in health care that is no different than what the young guy experienced at the repair shop. Can we really turn down one more blood test?  Is this CT Scan really necessary?  Do we really need another pill?  Who are we to question our doctors’ recommendations?

Some of our friends on the Right never miss the opportunity to cite what they call President Obama’s biggest lie, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”.  It wasn’t a lie.  It was a mistake.  As many in Greater Cleveland learned this last year, your insurer can add or subtract doctors at will.  You don’t have any control over the network associated with your policy.  At best, you might be able to purchase a different policy that will grant you access to the hospital of your choice.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was a poorly crafted law that had/has more than a few flaws, but it does contain many important consumer guarantees.  The PPACA codified both guaranteed issue and the ten Essential Health Benefits.  That insurance card in your wallet is your ticket into a hospital, a doctor’s office, and the maternity ward.  This is particularly important when your employer, not you, gets to decide your insurer and coverage.

Those guarantees are about to be dismantled. The administration is promoting the creation of association policies.  This blog, consumer groups, insurance commissioners, and almost every organization that places the importance of access to health care above the politics of health care, have noted the risks of association policies.  Our concerns have fallen on deaf ears.

The American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network was one of the first to sound the alarm:

ACS CAN opposes any policy changes that exempt Association Health Plans from federal protections that are critical to cancer patients including prohibitions on pre-existing condition exclusions, Essential Health Benefit coverage standards, maximum out-of-pocket limits, and prohibitions on annual and lifetime limits. ACS CAN also opposes removing Association Health Plans from state regulatory authority which could severely disrupt the insurance market.

Will your employer’s new group policy cover your preexisting condition or your wife’s pregnancy? My personal claims exceeded $600,000 in 2016.  Are we about to return to group health policies that max out at $250,000 or only $50,000?  This is not an exaggeration.  This is not fearmongering.  Those policies existed just a few short years ago.  The PPACA ended all of those concerns.  Association plans will return us to those days.

When will you find out that you’re not really insured? When will you realize that you have coverage in name only?

The young man called his wife for a ride to work. I was at the repair shop for an oil change (preventive care).  As the clerk handed me my keys, he mentioned that my tires were OK, currently at 9’s.  I reminded him that I just purchased them from him last month.

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com

Photo – Still Tired – David L Cunix

 

 

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We’re Tired

Posted on December 29, 2017 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

Can you really talk something to death? Can you stress over an issue, every day, to the point that you are just numb?  Health Insurance?  It appears that the new Republican goal is to do just that.  In just the last week we have been told by President Trump that he has repealed Obamacare (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), that he has severely damaged it, and that Congress’s next task is to fix Obamacare in a bi-partisan fashion.  I’m tired and I’m not alone.

The PPACA has proven to be far more resilient than anyone imagined. Abandoned at birth by some of the very people who had created it (The Gang of Six), the law was relegated to a life with a parent (the Democrats) who didn’t always understand it and consistently failed to explain both its benefits and drawbacks to the American public.  For seven years the Republican controlled Congress has proven that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”.  The 60 plus faux attempts to repeal Obamacare may have riled up the base and kept the campaign funds coming, but they had little impact on the law.   And in 2017, in the year of Trump, we have seen the end of the funding for the Cost Sharing Reduction, a 50% reduction in the Open Enrollment Period, and, last week, the elimination of the Individual Mandate.

So this time he succeeded? Obamacare is dead, right?  Not so fast.

Cleveland area insurance agents became reacquainted with our clients in 2017’s Open Enrollment Period. There was a major change in our market.  Anthem Blue Cross, a major player since 1985 when the then Community Mutual Blue Cross Blue Shield of Cincinnati invaded Cleveland, chose to stop selling individual policies until the Cost Sharing Reduction got resolved.   Mr. Reliable, Medical Mutual of Ohio, found it necessary to move policies on individuals, under age 65, purchased after 2014 away from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.  And the Cleveland Clinic formed a partnership with New York based Oscar to market their own policy.

Due to the PPACA, agents no longer ask health questions or engage in medical underwriting. We used to get involved with claims issues, but HIPAA ended that.  So imagine our surprise when we got calls like this:

“Dave, I really like Medical Mutual, but my cardiologist is at the Clinic”.

Cardiologist?

   “Yes.  I had quadruple by-pass in February”.

“Wow. I didn’t know. Didn’t I see you over the summer at an art show?  You didn’t say anything about this.”

The last two months have been filled with talks about cancers, heart conditions, and expensive dermatology treatments. Who knew?  More importantly, which insurance company would cover these people if there was medical underwriting and the possibility to decline a bad risk?  The clients come in, concerned, sometimes crying, hoping to hear that they can still purchase health insurance for another year.  AND THEY CAN.

But the stress is showing. How many times can you walk to the edge of the abyss before you fall in?  If you are working your way through a major illness, facing months of treatment, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical expenses, you hope that this is all a bluff.  You hope that the president will forget about health care and his fixation on all things Obama and move on to something less consequential.  Like Korea.

But more than anything else, you’re tired.

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com

Photo – “It’s True It’s True” – David L Cunix

 

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Pacing The Hallway

Posted on December 19, 2017 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

We are pacing the hallways waiting for news. Our seven year old, no, nearly eight year old, is in surgery donating a major organ.  Giving a part of yourself for the benefit of others is always an important life lesson to teach our youth.  Sometimes it is a kidney.  In this case it is the Individual Mandate.  If Obamacare (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) can just give up the Individual Mandate, the corporations, the very rich, and certain elected officials will be able to have their taxes cut.  It seems like a wonderful trade-off.  Never have so many been willing to sacrifice so much for so few.

The American public has been forced to pace the hallways for most of 2017. There were the two major attempts to repeal the PPACA without a concern given to the consequences.  The funding for the Cost Sharing Reduction was eliminated.  Other actions, great and small, were taken to sabotage the law.  And each time we found ourselves pacing the hallways left to wonder how all of this will play out once the Republicans were forced to accept that 20% of our economy and peoples’ lives hung in the balance.

Paul Ryan and the Republican House are about to pass the final version of the new tax bill. They may not know nor understand the Corker Kickback or the myriad of other favors granted by the law.  Here is the link to the final version.  Trust me, your Congressman and Senators haven’t bothered reading it.  What they do know is that the spigots to their campaign donations have been opened and that the Individual Mandate has been repealed.  What they don’t know is how much this will cost you and me.

We have covered this ground before. Millions of Americans depend on health insurance to provide access and payment for care.  You cannot base our system on the sick and the responsible.  To work efficiently, we all have to participate.  Much as the Republicans determined when they created Medicare Part D in 2003, there must either be an incentive to get everyone to participate or a penalty if they don’t.  There are some Americans who don’t qualify for enough subsidy to make insurance affordable.  But the young, the healthy, and the cheap will abandon ship.  Spreading the risk, the inevitable claims, across a smaller group of people leads to higher pricing.  Higher pricing forces those who pay the full cost of their insurance to either bail out or choose significantly less comprehensive contracts.  And for those who qualify for those subsidies?  As the premiums increase the subsidies increase.

The loser is the American taxpayer, you know, those of us who don’t own a Congressman.  By the time you read this the House will have passed the legislation.  The Senate will vote later tonight.  Still we pace…

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com 

Photo – Emergency by David L Cunix

 

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The Law Of Unintended Consequences

Posted on November 19, 2017 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

Fall 2017

There are certain things I can count on every November – Sunday afternoons in my office working on renewals and Open Enrollment, trees shedding their leaves, and the Republicans trying to screw up healthcare. Yes, just another November.

We are a little over halfway through this year’s Open Enrollment Period. Now is a good time to see how we’re doing.

Ball of Confusion – What has been the most confusing part of this year’s open Enrollment?  Medical Mutual of Ohio’s network change.  I’m still getting calls weekly.  First and most importantly, the MMO network change ONLY APPLIES TO POLICIES SOLD TO PEOPLE UNDER AGE 65 SINCE 2014.  The new network does not apply to Medicare supplements.  It does not apply to group policies.  When in doubt, call your agent.

Against all odds – The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has withstood seven years of attacks and sabotage.  This year, with an administration actively trying to undermine the law daily, the PPACA has proven to be remarkably resilient.  The Open Enrollment has been reduced to 45 days, less than half of what it should be.  The advertisement budget disappeared.  The federal healthcare Exchange is closed on Sundays.  Funding for the Cost Sharing Reduction was eliminated.  And with all of that Enrollment is up, way up.

Skinny Networks – One of the ways the insurers have used to rein in costs has been to limit your choice of doctors.  Like the original HMO’s and PPO’s of 30 years ago, the insurer can negotiate better pricing if it can drive more business to specific hospitals and providers.  This gives us the new partnership between the Cleveland Clinic and NY based Oscar and the Medical Mutual network changes mentioned above.  Rate increase would have been much higher in Cuyahoga County without this change.  Some counties even saw a rate reduction.  But limiting access has hit Northeast Ohioans hard.  Many in Greater Cleveland utilize doctors and services at both University Hospital and the Clinic.  Individual policyholders in Lorain County will find it difficult to access University Hospital doctors at nearby St. John West Shore.  And people living in Chesterland will find it hard to purchase a policy that will cover them at Hillcrest.  This trend won’t end anytime soon.

25% and Higher – Did we really see rate increases over 25%?  Yes, but not across the board. As noted above, President Trump eliminated the funding for the Cost Sharing Reduction last month.  Ohio insurers were prepared.  The Silver Level policies purchased through the Exchange, the only contracts impacted by this decision, experienced significant price increases.  All policies may have taken a bit of a hit, but the real impact was on the Silver policies.  Individuals and families committed to comprehensive coverage will experience the full impact of the rate increases if they don’t qualify for a premium tax credit subsidy.  If you are getting a subsidy, you might not notice a change.

A Price Decrease – Yes, lots of people are seeing no change in their premium for 2018 or even a decrease.  It doesn’t appear that the President or his advisors actually understand how the PPACA works.  Increasing the price of Silver Level policies increases the premium tax credit for all subsidy eligible participants.  The price goes up, the subsidy goes up, and the net premium stays about the same. The insured doesn’t pay more, but we, the US Taxpayer, are covering the difference. This is the law of unintended consequences.  And it gets worse.  The subsidy is based on income.  So if the insured purchases a Bronze Level policy, the new higher premium tax credit can result in a lower premium for 2018.  I have seen reductions between 15% to as high as 20%!  Lots of insureds, especially the healthier ones, are moving to the Bronze Level policies and pocketing the savings.

Up is Down – The Republicans have turned their attention to tax reform.  This being Health Insurance Issues With Dave, we wouldn’t have wasted any time on the merits of the current proposals had the Senate not floated the idea of eliminating the Individual Mandate as a way to fake a balance.  We have covered how you can’t build a healthcare payment system based solely on the sick and the responsible.  We have noted that the Individual Mandate, strikingly similar to the plan the Republicans used when creating Medicare Part D, traces its origins to the Heritage Foundation.  So why insert this in a tax bill?  The concept is that more Americans, the healthy ones, would take a pass on health insurance and save the taxpayer the subsidy money.  Terribly cynical, but would that work?  Of course not!  As with the Cost Sharing Reduction debacle, what we would see is a severe hike in the price of health insurance as we remove the best risks from the insurance pool.  The premiums would spike, the subsidies would jump, and the taxpayer would, again, be on the hook for the additional cost.  And if you don’t qualify for a subsidy?  You get hit twice – higher premiums and higher taxes if and when Congress ever chooses to bring in enough money to pay the bills.

Just another November.

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com

Photos – David L. Cunix

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Playing Chicken

Posted on October 15, 2017 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

Bruce Springsteen was right. You really could have 57 stations with nothing on.  There were tons of reruns, and worse, the same shows were on multiple stations.  One saga looked familiar.  It was a New York production, a remake of a Hollywood classic.  Only this time we didn’t get James Dean.  Instead, the two ne’er-do-wells racing the stolen cars to the cliff were Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.  In this version they both jumped out in time but the American public was bound and gagged in the trunk.  Dozens of stations were showing A President Without A Clue.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) took its first breath on March 23, 2010.  It survived over sixty Congressional assaults, but died of stab wounds and blunt force trauma on October 13, 2017.  We now have Trumpcare.

Obamacare was a failed attempt to make health insurance universal and affordable. It failed.  Millions of Americans did acquire better, cheaper coverage, but others did not.  You can trace the problems to the design, the actual language of the bill, the process (numerous Republican amendments and poison pills), or the concerted effort of the Republicans to discredit and destroy it once it became law.  It doesn’t matter.  We knew the goals and the PPACA came up short.

What is the goal of Trumpcare?

The last post of this blog covered Donald Trump’s Executive Order a few days before he issued it.  The changes, the expansion of cherry-picking association policies and the revival of short term contracts, are not immediate.  The first step is a sixty day period for the public and the stakeholders to comment.  The immediate impact is Market Instability, the hallmark of Trumpcare.  I talked with insurers on Friday.  They will be ready to roll out alternative products by January 1st.

Trumpcare was born with the elimination of the Cost Sharing Reduction Subsidy.  Trump had been threatening to do this for months even though many, including his then HHS Secretary, Tom Price, had urged him to continue the program until Congress passed an Obamacare alternative.  You may remember that these threats were the reason Anthem withdrew from the individual market.

There were four steps to individual health insurance under Obamacare, all based on the personal or family income of Americans who didn’t have access to coverage at work.

  • Income below 138% of the federal poverty level – Medicaid
  • Income between 138% to 250% of the federal poverty level – A tax credit subsidy to help pay for the premium and a cost sharing reduction to reduce the deductibles and out-of-pocket costs
  • Income between 250% to 400% of the federal poverty level – A tax credit subsidy to help pay the premium
  • Income in excess of 400% of the federal poverty level – Full premium

The insurers are contractually obligated to reduce the deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for those who qualify, but due to a failure in the wording of the law, the federal responsibility to fund it became a political football. Republicans sued and the courts let the funding continue as long as the President defended it.  I don’t know that anyone really believed that Trump would do more than threaten to upend the market.  But which insures could take a chance?

Insurers across the country are now being forced to decide whether or not to withdraw from the individual market. At the very least premiums must be increased to cover their additional exposure.  Excellent reporting by Stephen Koff in Saturday’s Plain Dealer detailed how insurers were forced through the difficult processes of preparing rates for each state and how this will impact the consumers, the insurers, and yes, the American taxpayers.

It is assumed that Trump will institute this immediately, cutting off payments due for the rest of 2017.

Medical Mutual of Ohio, based in Cleveland, says it will lose $3 million to $5 million in just those three months because of this. The company is large enough to withstand it.  Smaller companies might not have the same financial fortitude.

Consumers who qualify for a tax credit subsidy will receive a higher subsidy. The Congressional Budget Office, according to the Plain Dealer, projects that this one decision will increase the “deficit by $194 billion in the next 10 years”.  And those that don’t qualify for subsidies will see higher premiums as soon as January 1st.

Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have been playing chicken with 20% of our economy and the way Americans access and pay for healthcare for over seven years. It was cynical and unprincipled.  It took Donald Trump to drive over the cliff.

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com

Picture – Cliff Straight Ahead – David L Cunix

 

 

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Havoc

Posted on October 10, 2017 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

The wire services are abuzz with news that President Trump, the guy who campaigned in part on his disdain for President Obama’s use of the Executive Order, is poised to sign another Executive Order dealing with health insurance. Frustrated and confused by the Republican controlled Congress’s inability to simply pass any unvetted, purely political legislation regardless of the potential harm it might do to both the economy and the public’s access to care, Donald Trump is more than willing to take matters into his own hands.

The word for today is ASSOCIATION. Associations are not inherently good or bad.  In fact, we have had the term Association within the health insurance lexicon for years.  Small businesses in the Greater Cleveland area have joined COSE (Council of Smaller Enterprises) or NOACC (Northeast Ohio Area Chamber of Commerce) to get a discount on their group health insurance policies.  The discount was often no more than the premium tax that wasn’t assessed on an association group contract.  The businesses were still subject to health underwriting and the policies conformed to Ohio regulations.

I used to write health insurance on certain hardware stores. The stores were part of a franchise and the owners were given guaranteed access to an association health policy, the association of XXXX Hardware Stores.  It didn’t take long for some of the owners to realize that if they and their employees had better than average health, they could purchase a group policy in the open market.  The guaranteed issue, no health questions asked association policy became the insurer of last resort.  The healthy bailed out until the only ones left were the most expensive to insure.

The difference between these two types of associations is that in the first example association members and non-members were on equal footing. The only thing different was the absence of a premium tax, which may or may not have been as much as the membership fee into the organization.  In the second example, one path led to a health insurance policy that was selective and rewarded the healthy and/or punished the sick while the other path led to a policy that charged everyone the same price regardless of risk.

The more open, less selective plan was doomed to failure.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has long championed a version of the association health insurance model.  His option would allow businesses or individuals to form associations specifically created to avoid the regulations and consumer protections of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  And President Trump appears to be ready to sign off on this.

The Paul / Trump associations will offer flexibility and lower premiums and will be hailed as a consumer benefit. There are two ways that these association policies can save money and both center on flexibility.

  1. The policies will have the flexibility to eliminate a broad range of coverages for particular illnesses. The rush to the bottom will feature policies that fail to cover specific conditions or will place limits on the amounts paid.
  2. The policies will have the flexibility to ask health questions and choose to insure only the healthiest individuals and groups.

And who does that leave on the outside looking in? The unhealthy, the older worker, and eventually everyone who might be a worse than average risk.  In other words, the unlucky.  And the unlucky will be trapped in a health insurance death spiral consisting of individuals and families dependent upon the good graces of a system that was initially designed to spread risk across the broad spectrum of American citizens.  There is a reason why the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (every state has one) has adamantly opposed this type of association health policy.  Someone has to look out for the American consumer.

My friend and fellow agent, Barb, heard about this possible change and exclaimed, “It will be just like it was where people with preexisting conditions can’t get covered!”

So a couple of quick questions:

Can he really wreck this much havoc on 20% of the economy without Congressional approval? YES.

Are you young enough, healthy enough, and lucky enough to not be hurt by this? HOPE SO.

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com

Banner – Lianesha Mays

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A Small Victory

Posted on October 9, 2017 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

Birth Control was always a point of contention. Facing numerous failures to execute one large sweeping rebuke of President Obama and his most important legacy, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), the Trump administration continues its smaller scale attacks of sabotage, subterfuge, and repeal by executive fiat.  President Trump’s latest victim is the coverage for Birth Control Pills, IUD’s, and the Morning After Pill.

This blog has detailed Obamacare’s numerous battles to provide no-cost reproductive coverage for women.  Making this a part of the Preventive Care Benefit, FREE and available to just about everyone, intensified the fight.  And let us be clear, this was a fight Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius wanted.  Though a majority of American women may favor and utilize some form of contraception such as Birth Control Pills, the addition of IUD’s and the Morning After Pill guaranteed that powerful forces would never settle for anything less than the total elimination of this benefit.

Trump gave them what they wanted this past Friday.

Before we go any further, let us first address the accessibility of Birth Control. Under the PPACA the pills, or at least many versions, are FREE.  With Birth Control Pills being lumped in with the Preventive Care Benefit, both the cost and the stigma associated with contraception was eliminated.  And though many organizations will now eliminate the benefit under either religious or moral grounds, Birth Control Pill will still be prescribed to their employees and may still be covered.  We will just revert to the way it used to be.  Young women will parade into their doctors’ offices complaining of menstrual issues and the doctors will prescribe the Pill to regulate their cycles.  The medication will be covered, just not free, so that we will also be back where access to contraception was as much a class issue as it was religious.  Can the employers remove this medication completely from their lists of covered meds?  In some instances, perhaps.  I sure wouldn’t want to be the HR manager that had to explain this to the mother of a distraught 15 year old.

And while we are here, let us take a moment to award this year’s King of Hypocrisy Award to Tim Murphy who was just forced to resign from Congress.

All health policies force us to pay for certain medications and/or procedures that we, personally, couldn’t or wouldn’t use. A single, never married, male never encountered any of the claims associated with pregnancy or menopause.  My prostate cancer claims were paid with the premiums of men AND women.  We are all in this together.  You might find the concept of organ transplants for adults over 50 as an unnecessary luxury, a cost that should be borne by the organ recipient.  Perhaps, but that isn’t how our system works.  We don’t take a poll to see which health issues you choose to cover.  Here we spread the risks amongst as many people as possible.

There are organizations that are applauding this latest executive action. And since it was broken into two parts (religious organizations and those with a moral objection), at least part of Friday’s order may survive a court challenge.  I view it as another step towards separating health insurance, the way we access and pay for healthcare, from employment.  I certainly understand why the Catholic Church didn’t want to pay for Birth Control Pills for nuns (They were exempted), but do you want to be forced to ask about the Pill when you are applying for a job at a machine shop?  Where, exactly, does the line get drawn?

I have insured churches and synagogues. I have insured the deeply religious and the ritualistically observant of many faiths.  My clients, in almost every case, simply chose to forego those benefits that they deemed inappropriate.  They didn’t try to impose their deeply help values on the rest of society.

On Friday the Trump administration scored a small victory. One hundred thousand women and/or their daughters may be forced to pay for Birth Control Pills.  Some will.  Some won’t.  We won’t know for about five years if this leads to more unplanned pregnancies, unwanted children, and abortions.  But right now the thing to remember is that Donald Trump scored a small victory.

Break out the Champagne!

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com

Picture – “Time to Dedicate Another Trophy” by David L Cunix

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The Speech

Posted on September 25, 2017 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

Where were you when he delivered The Speech? Yes, it was just days after his inauguration when President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress.  The topic, of course, was healthcare.  His victory could be traced, in part, to his rally cry to Repeal and Replace Obamacare.  This has been a Republican mantra since 2010, but it sounded new from Donald Trump.  His opponents, both Democrats and Republicans, had been taken aback by the aggressiveness of his assertions.  He had promised a great new health plan.  This blog was underwhelmed by the plan information he released during the campaign.  But there he was, delivering a prime-time address, unveiling his proposal.  Trumpcare was a comprehensive proposal that worked hard to provide protection for every American family. Leadership.

There was no speech.  There was no plan.  And, there is no leadership.

2017 has been a terrible year for serious people and a difficult time for those of us who once revered “The world’s Greatest Deliberative Body”.  Washington’s most cynical politician, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, decided that he would push a bill through the Senate with as little scrutiny as possible.  Utilizing the Reconciliation rules, McConnell worked hard to keep the legislation under wraps.  No hearings!  No input from any of the stakeholders.  And absolutely, positively, no Democrats.  McConnell’s strategy was to get 50 of the 52 Senate Republicans to vote Yes and then have Vice-president Mike Pence break the tie.  The details were irrelevant.

It may seem crazy to you or me to upend nearly 20% of the economy, not to mention the method that we access and pay for healthcare, with a legislative sleight-of-hand. But it almost happened this past July.  And they are about to try again this week.

The current proposal is called Graham-Cassidy.  The authors are Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Dean Heller (R-NV), Ron Johnson (R-WI).  Their television interviews have revealed the plan to be a last ditch effort to erase Barack Obama’s legacy, repeal parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and to transfer billions of dollars to states that have shown little interest in health insurance protection for their citizens,  Healthcare?  That hardly enters into their thinking.

Here are the basics of Graham-Cassidy

Eliminate:

  • The federal exchange – healthcare.gov
  • The tax credit subsidies
  • The Cost Sharing Reduction
  • The Individual Mandate
  • The Essential Health Benefits
  • The Medicaid Expansion
  • All funding for one year for Planned Parenthood (Surprise!)

Changes:

  • With greater flexibility, the current protections for people with preexisting conditions would be at risk.
  • The majority of taxes used to pay for the PPACA would still be collected. The money would be dispensed to the states in the form of block grants. (Think the tobacco settlement)
  • Money that went to states that had expanded Medicaid will be redistributed to states that didn’t. Ohio would lose between $4 billion to $9 billion!

Who is strongly supporting this legislation?

  • Donald Trump

Who is opposed?

And where is our guy, Senator Rob Portman? He has been a solid Yes for every other lame-brained proposal.  He has maintained his usual silence on this one.  Perhaps he is waiting for Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) to save us again.

What we know for sure is that there will never be a comprehensive health care proposal from this White House. There will never be “The Speech”.

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You’re Invited

Posted on September 10, 2017 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

John Doak, Oklahoma’s Insurance Commissioner, is an outspoken critic of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  Mr. Doak and four other insurance commissioners were in Washington this past week to testify before a Senate panel.  Their goal was simple – What do we need to do NOW to strengthen the law for the benefit of the American consumer?

The five insurance commissioners, even ones like Doak who are opposed to the PPACA, all agreed on the importance of stabilizing the health insurance markets. The first step would be to lock in both the premium tax credit subsidy and the Cost Sharing Reduction, an important consumer benefit that has become a political football.  There appears to be bipartisan support to do this.  The big question is whether a bill can emerge from both the House and the Senate.

Another key area of agreement centers on the Section 1332 Waiver. Can Congress streamline the process of securing a waiver?

Ohio is preparing its Section 1332 Waiver application.  And we, agents and consumers, have an opportunity to participate.  Now is the time to provide your input into what rules should be changed or relaxed to improve health insurance pricing and availability. We have until October 15th to provide our ideas.

There are four areas of concern:

  • The delivery system
  • Benefit Package
  • Cost Containment and/or medical management options
  • Funding or the delivery of a reinsurance pool

Here are some questions to get you thinking:

  1. Should there be annual or lifetime maximums?
  2. Should pediatric dental and vision be optional?
  3. Would mandating a second opinion save money?
  4. Would a state exchange be more effective than healthcare.gov?
  5. If we develop a high risk pool, can we incentivize carriers from ceding business to the pool?
  6. Can certain benefits such as Mental Health or Maternity become optional?
  7. Should there be a baseline standard plan with the option to buy up?

I think you get the idea. The process is just beginning.  Our job is to stop complaining and to start working. You may post your suggestions in the Comment section or send me a private email at dave@cunixinsurance.com.

We are all in this together. Let’s make health insurance, our way to access and pay for healthcare, more affordable and effective.

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com

 

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Back To Work

Posted on August 27, 2017 by dave@cunixinsurance.com

Congress is off on recess. Some of our elected representatives are in their home districts, meeting with constituents, and discussing the issues of the day.  Judging from the news, most are locked in their homes, hiding from the public, and avoiding the press.  Even the usual stand-bys, Chamber of Commerce luncheons and district picnics are likely to lead to embarrassing questions about the recent craziness in Washington.  Neither you, my readers, nor I have the luxury of a month away from reality.

We are in the last week of August. Senior Open Enrollment begins October 15th.  The Open enrollment for individuals and families under age 65 begins November 1st, a little over two months from now.  Rates have not been finalized, due in part to President Trump’s indifference to market stability.  And for those who believe that change is inevitable, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The Deck Is About To Be Reshuffled

Change is no longer on the horizon. Change is here and now.  New companies are entering into our market.  Old companies are either leaving or making significant changes.  And through it all only one question truly matters – “Will more Americans have access to high quality, affordable health care?”  The answer, at this point, can only be, “I hope so.”

This is a moment for adults. This is a moment for leadership.  Seven years’ of meaningless votes to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) have given way to bipartisan initiatives to stabilize the insurance markets.  Will these Congressmen and Senators overcome the objections of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and craft a law that can garner enough votes?  Would Trump veto the bill?

Our elected representatives will be forced to deal with a number of significant issues when they return from recess. Health Insurance is but one area of concern.  There is a debt ceiling vote, the budget, Korea, Afghanistan, and a host of other major issues that were put on the back burner while Congress debated a variety of politically driven, incredibly illogical, Repeal and Replace bills.

Take a look at who is representing you in Congress. Take a look at the White House.  Are they up to the job?

DAVE

www.cunixinsurance.com

Photo – The Halls of Congress by David L Cunix 2017

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