Hooray for President Obama! In today's mail I received a check as a rebate from BlueCross BlueShield of Texas because BCBSTX did not meet the 80% Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) required by the SCOTUS-affirmed Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! If others are as happy as I am (and I've been an Obama supporter from the git-go) with this timely, explicit, and significant monetary benefit of the ACA, President Obama will be adding or solidifying many more supporters to his cause because of this particular feature of Obamacare. This is a BFD folks!
Now I have an individual health insurance policy with BCBSTX. The letter I got today with my rebate check said that BCBSTX in 2011 had a Medical Loss Ratio of only 71.0% and that since it missed the 80% target for MLR required by the ACA, a rebate check was enclosed equaling 9% of the previous 2011 premiums I had paid on my individual health insurance plan with BCBSTX.
Since I am a 60+ man, the premiums for an individual health insurance plan with BCBSTX are not cheap (even though I am in excellent health, and my policy has a moderately large deductible). So needless to say, 9% of all my 2011 premiums in one check is a not insignificant amount of money for me. So with today's mail, I was just totally surprised with the timing and extremely happy--and that's putting it mildly. And more importantly, I know that I can't have been the only one feeling the same way! As well as feeling deep appreciation for President Obama.
Now I did know about the Medical Loss Ratio requirement of the ACA; however, I didn't know that BCBSTX would miss the 80% test, or if so, by how much, or when I would receive a rebate, if at all. And I'm not the only one in Texas (or other states for all I know) who received such a check today. All I can say is that my wife was staring when I opened the mail and started doing my happy dance while saying "Thank you Obama, Thank you Obama". And how many others were doing the same thing?
So President Obama scores big today in my personal opinion from this personal experience. It's hard to state that President Obama and Obamacare aren't doing anything beneficial for you when you are holding a real honest-to-goodness ACA-required and SCOTUS-approved rebate check in your own hands. And to piss off the conservatives even more, this check is actually a rebate of my own premium money that I paid into the coffers of BCBSTX--no federal tax money was in that check. Like the conservatives like to chant, this is just my own money being returned to me! By President Obama no less!
So I hope there are many others out there in Daily Kos land (and Red State land or Freeper land, or anywhere) who experienced the same happiness I felt today. And I feel happy for President Obama. This can only help him, and the timing was unexpected and absolutely wonderful. Again, Thank you Obama.
UPDATE: Just got back from our Friday night Mexican dinner to find out I'm on the Rec List! Still can't believe it. So thank you everyone, and I hope that you all can do your happy dances too.
UPDATE 2: #1 on the Rec List! Now you're going to make me blush. Thank you all again.