Note: Reposted for additional exposure; this is another important example of how the Obama administration has learned the lessons of the past.
HHS: Insurers Must Credit ObamaCare When Giving Rebates
Health-insurance companies must tell customers who get a premium rebate this summer that the check is the result of the Obama administration's health-care law, according to federal guidelines released Friday.
The move is the latest sign the Obama administration is trying to draw attention to the law's benefits before the fall elections, even though the law faces an uncertain future. The Supreme Court is expected to decide in June whether its central plank-a mandate that everyone carry insurance-violates the Constitution. Mitt Romney, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, has pledged to wipe out the law if elected.
...
Rules finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services on Friday instruct insurers to notify recipients of rebates in the first paragraph of the mailing by writing: "This letter is to inform you that you will receive a rebate of a portion of your health insurance premiums. This rebate is required by the Affordable Care Act-the health reform law."
GOOD!!
I've been wondering about this. Remember when the $300 Bush tax rebates showed up a decade ago, they actually had the gall to print "Tax Relief for America's Workers" directly on the checks. Flat-out propaganda, literally buying people's votes. After all, no one in the middle class had really been asking for a tax cut at the time, and the rebate wasn't connected to anything in particular.
But then, when the 2009 ACCA (Stimulus) bill went through, the IRS quietly buried $500 and $1,000 middle-class tax deductions into the 1040 forms without calling any attention to it. It was just another line in the middle of a bunch of other calculations.
As a result, most people didn't have a clue that they had just been given a tax cut (if they noticed the lower tax at all, they just assumed that they'd had a lower gross income that year or whatever.
When I first heard the stories about the ACA's 80% / 85% Medical Loss Ratio rule and the rebates that would be coming from the insurance companies, I was concerned that the Obama Administration would make the same mistake. If they didn't require the rebates to explain things, people would be thanking the INSURANCE COMPANIES for being so "nice" as to actually cut them a check for no particular reason.
Instead, this time, Obama (or Sebelius, or someone along the way) made the wise decision to require that the insurance companies explain that they HAVE to issue rebates because they were being such greedy dicks all year.
Unfortunately, the language of the letter is probably still gonna go over the heads of a lot of people ("Affordable Care Act" isn't gonna ring any bells with a lot of folks).
Fortunately they at least added "the health reform law" after ACA which should help. I guess they can't come right out and call it Obamacare in an official letter, which is a shame, but I guess it's better than nothing...
As a side note, I find it amusing that the source for the article, the New Media Journal, originally got the story from...Fox News, of all sources...which, in turn, reprinted it from...The Wall Street Journal.
Gotta love modern journalism...