Posted on 01/04/2018 3:35:39 PM PST by Kaslin
Although the Trump administration and Congress have struggled to fully repeal Obamacare, while putting a good dent in the law by repealing the individual mandate through tax reform, officials are finding new ways to lower costs and expand coverage to consumers.
On Thursday, the Department of Labor announced a new rule proposal that opens the door to allowing insurance companies to sell plans and coverage across state lines. From Insurance News Net:
In another move toward dismantling the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Labor announced a proposed rule to expand the offering of small business health plans, also known as association health plans. The proposed rule will be published Friday.
Under the proposal, small businesses and sole proprietors would have more freedom to band together to provide health insurance for employees.
The proposed rule applies only to employer-sponsored health insurance. This would allow employers to join together as a single group to purchase insurance in the large group market.
And here are the basic details from the Labor Department:
As proposed, the rule would:
Allow employers to form a Small Business Health Plan on the basis of geography or industry. A plan could serve employers in a state, city, county, or a multi-state metro area, or it could serve all the businesses in a particular industry nationwide;
Allow sole proprietors to join Small Business Health Plans, clearing a path to access health insurance for the millions of uninsured Americans who are sole proprietors or the family of sole proprietors.
The rule will be posted Friday, January 5 for public comment.
Excellent news
But RUSSIA and BANNON and TRUMP IS AN IDIOT.
So that’s what it’s like to think like a NYTimes reporter.
This will be awesome.
Wonder how it affects health share companies? We belong to liberty.
p
Next up: The 2nd Amendment will apply across state lines.
Im more happy NOT paying the penalty like the past 6 years. F the IRS.
It will have little to no impact on rates. Companies rate the insurance based on the zip code of where the insured lives and where the services will be accessed. Also insurance networks tend to be local so if you live in Texas but buy a a cheaper plan from Oklahoma it is quite possible you might not be able to find a provider in your local area that is in Network making the coverage next to worthless. This buying across state lines is a red herring.
What happens if you buy your (presumably) cheaper health insurance from a company based in, say, Kansas but you live in expensive California and are buying expensive California doctor visits, services, procedures from providers who have to charge high to stay in business in this state?
How can that Kansas-based insurance company survive, and for how long?
Good stuff. Thank you GOP.
I'm sure it doesn't affect them at all. They already operate across state lines -- because they aren't insurance companies.
Oops, just read your post after I posted.
Read my post I just posted.
1. The Kansas-based insurance company won't sell health insurance in California because their plans won't be much cheaper once they have to meet California's coverage requirements. In your scenario, you're not buying a Kansas insurance plan. You're buying a California insurance plan sold by a Kansas company.
2. The doctors in California won't accept patients with the Kansas insurance coverage because they won't be willing to treat patients for the low payments the Kansas insurers will be offering.
Got it. Thanks.
The real impact will be on the Blues. It will cause competition between the Blue companies intra-state (Pennsylvania) and interstate (new York/new jersey).
The BCBS Association must really hate this.
I expect the outcome will be more consolidation among the blues.
This would be YUGE - great for every working person and it will be much more affordable.
“What happens if you buy your (presumably) cheaper health insurance from a company based in, say, Kansas but you live in expensive California and are buying expensive California doctor visits, services, procedures from providers who have to charge high to stay in business in this state?”
Insurance companies negotiate prices with doctors. If there are no doctors from California in the Kansas plan, that would be considered going out of network and the insurance company will not cover the expense.
Six states already allow for the sale of health care insurance across state lines - Maine, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and Wyoming. To date not a single insurance company has offered to sell a policy across the border to anyone in those states. The reason is obvious - they can’t make money doing so without first spending a lot of money setting up a network of providers. They aren’t going to do that for a handful of clients.
“It will have little to no impact on rates.”
Sure it will. When a company in Idaho can sell to a consumer in Massachusetts it’ll make a dent on the rates that the market in Massachusetts has to bear.
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