When it comes to healthcare reform, the insurance industry got what it wanted. No public option. No competition.
We can sit back, and say, aren't we great, we got "reform".
No. We. Can't. We still can and must fight these bastards. A new battle is here. The battle of regulation. Regulating this parasitic industry and implementing the spirit and letter of the law is where the fight has moved.
Health and Human Services will be responsible for issuing myriad regulations, determining pricing on, for example, the to-be-established high risk pools.
Yesterday, theFederal Register published the first request for comments issued by HHS.
But before I go any further, you should know that Wellpoint is already stuffing the ballot boxes and gaming the law.
The first request is for comments on medical loss ratio requirements, that is, how insurers spend premium dollars. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires plans in the individual and small group markets to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on clinical expenses and activities to improve quality. Plans in the large group market are required to spend at least 85 percent of premium dollars on these two things.
The second request is for comments on premium review. Health reform provides states with grants to enhance their rate review processes and requires health insurers to justify "unreasonable" premium increases to states and to HHS.
HHS wants comments on rate review processes now in place, what increases should be considered unreasonable and subject to scrutiny, what information should be made public, and how grant money should be allocated.
I would urge that premium rates be frozen between now and 2014, or at worst be tied to the consumer price index. How many more Americans will lose their coverage between now and 2014 as insurers price gouge on premium renewals? Isn't it long overdue that the American people get some protection from the government from this industry, the president himself spent the last six months demonizing?!
This is the HHS announcement which is worth reading before you make your comments.
Please go here to read the request from HHS and go here to submit your comment.
This is your opportunity to influence how health reform is implemented. This is our opportunity as citizens who will bare the brunt of the failure of our government to include a public option (to keep the insurance corporations honest), to assist the government in creating important regulations--for us.
The federal government has made requests for public comment to help them develop regulations that clarify the new health reform law. This is the point at which we may get a few crumbs to ensure that the regulations are strong, effective and benefit us not once again, the private insurance industry. Igor Volskyin the Wonk Room explains why our comments are so critical.
I urge everyone to spend a little time, so at the very least, the regulations are not yet another giveaway to the insurance industry. You can take it to the bank, that the lobbyists are lined up three deep at HHS to make their voices heard.
As you make your comments, keep in mind that the taxpayers will now be subsidizing the for-profit insurance industry.
The taxpayers will subsidize oversized salaries like the the executive compensation of UnitedHealth Group President Stephen Hemsley which shot up to $8.9 million last year, from $3.24 million in 2008, according to the health insurer's latest proxy statement.Check out page 47!
Restricted shares and stock appreciation rights comprised the bulk of Hemsley's 2009 compensation package. He received $4.1 million in restricted and performance-based stocks, as well as $1.4 million in stock appreciation rights. Hemsley's non-equity incentive plan compensation improved from $1.8 million in 2008 to $1.95 million in 2009, but was still significantly lower than the $3.6 million he received in 2007.
Hemsley's compensation package is chump change compared to the $18 million-plus earned by Aetna's Ron Williams and the $13.1 million earned by WellPoint's Angela Braly. However, Hemsley's compensation was more than the $6.6 million earned by Cigna's David Cordani and the $6.5 million earned by Humana's Michael McCallister.
Both these HHS requests surround consumer protections against insurance industry abuses, like classifying administrative costs as part of the medical loss ratio, and price gouging on premium renewals. Why, after reform, is the industry (which evades all attempts to be regulated) still at the center of our shiny, new, reformed healthcare system? I know the answer, do you?
We're taking the healthcare fight to the next level. We're going to be fighting for strong regulations that will protect the American people, better laws (HR 4789), and to educate the public about their rights against this industry. slinkerwink and I will unveil an initiative designed to help everyone who despite the passage of "reform", will need lots of assistance fighting the for-profit industry, and exposing the ongoing atrocities.
If you want to support us, we're very grateful to you.
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