The short answer to anyone who complains about Obamacare is: Did you get your check yet? Have you cashed it?
It would be great if we had a website about this welcome phenomenon: millions of Americans being sent checks from their insurance companies by August 1. A website where we could do things like donate the money to medical charities, or to the Obama Campaign.
Among the piles of bills waiting for us when we returned home from Rochester, Minnesota's Mayo Clinic with our daughter last week was yet another letter from our health insurance company. We expected it to be one more of the many Explanation of Benefits forms we receive regularly now, since the manifestation of our daughter's congenital heart defects have capsized our lives in so many ways. We set it aside.
Imagine our delight to find that instead, the envelope contained money for us! It was accompanied by a letter explaining that the check was a refund because our health insurance company had not spent at least 80% of its revenues directly on patient needs. Wow. For once we were getting money from The Man, and not the other way around.
And we aren't the only ones. A quick look on the Internet shows that in all, 12.8 million Americans are receiving rebate checks (or getting a premium credit), putting $1.1 BILLION dollars back in the pockets of US citizens.
These checks are a direct result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare. And they are not from the government.
Our letter explains that because our health insurance company failed to meet the patient margin regulations contained in the ACA, it was required by law to send us -- and all its policyholders -- a rebate check.
This check is effectively a refund of a portion of our insurance premiums. And the letter is essentially an apology for excessive profit-taking. The check might just as well have had a two-word message in the memo line: "Our Bad".
I wonder how many Obamacare haters out there are going to refuse to cash their checks out of principle? After all, they believe Obamacare was wrong for the country, and they tried their level best to kill the legislation. So they wouldn't want to be a party to its benefits, right? That would be hypocritical.
Or maybe the Obamacare haters will endorse their checks and donate them to the federal government, to offset what they are so certain about: the country-bankrupting effects of the evil ACA. That's the least they could do. Where's their patriotism?
But wait. Where's the website?
The one that TRUMPETS this fine thing, the thing that makes us all dance with joy, getting money FROM an insurance company instead of the other way around. And even better, money accompanied by a virtual admission that The Man was too greedy and didn't deliver, so here's some back. This is AWESOME, I tell you. Simply unheard of in today's business environment.
The website could contain news about which companies are sending out checks, for how much, and where. The recipients could be broken down by all sorts of demographics -- red states/blue states, age ranges, income levels, even how many members of the US Congress are receiving checks because of the ACA.
How about showing the number of people getting checks by congressional district? That would be particularly interesting for those representatives who fought so hard to keep this money from their constituents.
There could also be a blog where people share their thoughts about getting a rebate from their insurance company, and what they are going to do with the cash.
There could be a donation page; a place where people could donate the amount of their rebate to charities, such as medical charities like St. Jude's Children's Hospital, the American Cancer Society or my current favorite, the Mayo Clinic Foundation. Or they could just donate it to any 501(c)3 -- a library, a school, animal welfare, environmental causes, whatever.
They could even donate it to a political candidate, such as the Obama Campaign.
There could be all this, and so much more.
So where is this website??? I wish it existed. I don't have the web development skills to create it in a timely fashion, or I would do it myself. I think it would be EXCELLENT, and I think it would be popular. We could even direct our Obamacare-hating friends to it. Michael Moore would be sure to link to it on his website. And there's no question it would be good press for the embattled US congressional reps who supported the ACA.
We owe to everyone, from President Obama all the way to yes, even Chief Justice John Roberts, to create such a website so everyone can see all the good things that happen when Americans get a little economic relief during tough times.
Especially when that relief comes in the form of the system finally working for them.
Somebody, please?
Mon Aug 06, 2012 at 3:38 PM PT: While I appreciate the thought that most of the money will go to employers, consider:
1) 12.8 million Americans is not a trivial amount! There are approximately 130,000 in Colorado alone.
2) Some companies are turning around and giving their insurance company's rebate checks to their employees!!
3) Checks to private companies?? Doesn't that sound like exactly the kind of shot in the arm support for private industry that Obama is being accused of NOT providing? Could this money perhaps translate to those companies creating more jobs?? Still sounds like some good marketing potential to me.