Posted on 06/17/2012 7:16:02 AM PDT by EBH
Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) announced that it too will continue to offer important health care insurance protections that were included in the 2010 health care reform law, no matter how the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case pending before the Court. This makes Humana the second major health insurance provider to authenticate The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. The Republican party had made the act a centerpiece of the 2010 campaign for Congressional seats, falsely claiming, among other things that the PPACA was "socialized medicine."
It is not.
The announcement by Humana, authenticates the PPACA, or what the Republican Tea Partiers call Obamacare. The announcement was mildly surprising in view of the political conversation over the last two years. Humana is now also on board with Obamacare, obliterating the "socialized medicine" argument for good. In their announcement, the company vowed to keep in place many of the important elements of the PPACA.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
This is interesting in that we all know rates jumped due to 0bamacare, not decreased.
Plus if the continue to offer it, the government can't subsidize it can they?
Or are these insurance companies getting $$$ and see the program as a cash cow?
If Humana takes on all of those cases with previous medical conditions, they will be out of business inside a year.
Well, there’s one company off my list, for sure.
Follow the money.
Any and every business owner in the US should drop Humana and United Healthcare immediately.
Any and every business owner in the US should drop Humana and United Healthcare immediately.
HMOs are expecting single payer as the next stage of health care reform after ObamaCare is repealed.
Which makes sense since they won’t pick up the tab for state-funded health care.
Not that I’m surprised.
Good, I’m considering dropping my insurance for a year or two, and it is good to know that should something come up, there is a company waiting to cover my bills.
The farticle just drips with bias, doesn’t it?
Choosing to do it is fine. The market will work it all out. It’s when it’s forced that I have an issue -
They’re only choosing to keep part(s), not all. IMO they would not choose to keep things that put them out of business.
But all this is under the assumption that there is no subsidy or undue influence. In fact the move helps the repubs if the market is choosing this... imo
The headline is fundamentally dishonest. Humana is making a free market decision (or more likely a crony-capitalist decision in which it is counting on rewards from Dear Leader) to offer specific benefits at a price. ObamaCare is a government mandate in which private individuals and private companies are compelled by government force to act in a specific manner. The difference between choice and force is exactly as stark as the difference between seduction and rape. Humana is entitled to act as they choose, and we are entitled to switch insurers and boycott the crony-capitalist version of medical insurance. It’s only when Obama and the IRS introduce force into the equation that this crosses a line.
IF there is a private health insurance market around in a decade.
Part of the industry has already read the writing on the wall.
They would never do this in a million years if the other shoe didn’t drop.
Conservatives may cheer the demise of ObamaCare. As a Trojan Horse it will have ultimately served its purpose.
Yes Sarge it does....but it is interesting to see which insurance companies are doing what...
Sure they will ‘offer” it and they will “charge” for it too.
Enhanced/expanded benefits means increased cost. They will have to charge more for policies that include these benefits.
But all of us shouldn’t be forced to buy policies that include these benefits, if we don’t want or need them.
been saying for years: "healthcare" makes wall street look like Sunday Mass.
It means they want to keep premium very high.
I could stay on my retired hubby's insurance through his company, the range in choices there were a high deductible plan($3,000/yr) at $47/month and a all-inclusive/low deductible plan at $750/mo - I did the math.
I'm curious if Humana will be offering different levels of coverage to their customers or just this one Øbamacare plan.
I don’t get it. Is the healthcare industry more immoral than wall street?
I had not heard that about United Health Care.
That explains why they have decided that after years on the market as a tier two drug, Janumet, an effective oral medication for type two diabetes, is now a tier three drug, incresing co-pays significantly for users.
Janumet is a combination of Januvia, a name brand drug, and metformin, a generic that has been on the market for years.
This drug has been so effective for me, it allows me to “cheat” and enjoy real ice cream about once a week and still keep my blood sugar in range. But the change will take my co-pay from $62.50 for 90 days to $100!
We need to get away from the notion that one size fits all when it comes to health care plans. For instance, older adult women should not have to pay for pregnancy coverage. Then too, there are plenty of two person families out there, they are called empty nesters. Their kids are all over age 26, and they aren’t going to be moving back in, in need of health insurance. But these couples aren’t old enough for Medicare either. Why should they pay for a “family” plan?
Anyway, by offering those provisions if the court overturns Obamacare, it is no longer socialist, it’s voluntary. That’s the way it should be.
You nailed it—high premiums, more cash.
I also see government subsidizing for people who can’t afford it but will be required to have it with Obamacare.
Right now Humana’s Medigap insurance plan...the premiums are almose twice the amount of another well-known insurance provider for the same coverage. Requires careful “shopping.”
I retired when I was 60 hers old and had 5 years to wait for Medicare eligibly. My former employer offered a series of plans for its present and retired employees. The lowest cost was a $1,000 deductible major medical plan at about $270 per month and the next lowest cost, at about $450 per month, was a conventional plan with near first dollar coverage and 20% copay up to a stop loss of about $4,500 out of pocket payments in a year. The major medical plan also had the same stop loss. I took the cheapest plan and saved a tremendous amount of money on it. Many other people, not just the young and healthy, also did. Th outcome was that the cost of the cheap plan dropped by about $20.00 per month from the time it was adopted until the day I reached age 65. Now my Medicare and Medicare supplement cost me about $150 per month more than the old employer provided plan did. My former employer’s major medical plan showed how real cost savings can be achieved without injuring the plan’s beneficiaries, just the opposite of what Obamacare does.
I am in 100% agreement with them deciding to do this
Just don't ask for a government BAILOUT afterward.
Just like the Auto Industry, Obama could not take it all over at once. All they needed to do was take over ONE (GM) and then use the power of tax dollars to drive the others out of business (so far they closed all Republican-owned GM dealers) Wait if he gets reelected- $10,000 rebates to buy GM vehicles until Ford goes belly-up.
They could do the same thing with an administration-friendly health care company (Humana) and tax dollar bailouts.
This is what it's about. They're getting 'something' for doing this. They too will be emerged into a government run 'minimum health care' one day.
I don’t see a problem so long as other companies are free not to offer it. If people are willing to pay for the Obamacare goodies, then so be it, but don’t force me to do so.
Nothing is free.
Everyone with a lick of sense (that leaves out liberals and other socialists) knows companies have to earn enough money to cover the costs of services provided at no charge (”free” stuff) or go bankrupt.
So, either they charge higher rates to paying customers or somehow tap into government wealth redistribution scams to offset the cost of “free” services.
Either way, someone else pays for the “freebies”.
Didn’t I read something about being in bed with big pharmacy?
Now we’re short of on drugs?
The only thing I have been worried about should the Supremes throw out Obamacare is the insurance for the under-26 crowd.
Many decisions have been made by families and the adult children themselves based on the availability of this extension. Pulling this out would create a real problem for them, putting them back on the individual market where they started.
Not saying Obamacare should have been done in the first place, but all kinds of plans (grad school, start your own business, take a job that does not offer benefits, etc) have been made based on that option.
The under-26 thing is all about STDs.
When I was in that age bracket, nobody gave a rip about health insurance.
Now all you hear about is how vital it is for these “kids” to have “coverage”.
They need to learn to keep their pants on.
“If Humana takes on all of those cases with previous medical conditions, they will be out of business inside a year.”
Agree. Companies will sneak up on them from the rear and offer policies without cradle-to-grave condom coverage, etc.
They’ll get their clocks cleaned, and THEY KNOW IT. I assume, right now, they just want to get some good press, while Obama is still president, and to prevent Congress from feeling that they have to codify some of the stuff that gets overturned...at least until Obama is gone, and (hopefully) Romney tells Congress to take a hike on condom coverage.
DING! Ding! Ding!
We have a winner!
Why yes. Weren’t you paying attention when congress passed this law...it was because of the insurance corruption.../sarc
Humana already has the most restrictive acceptance policy in the business. If you have as much as a hangnail they will deny coverage.
Which planet is this bozo from?
Hmmm...Guess the SCOTUS will probably drop their deliberations and close the case file as soon as they hear this important announcement.
Repeat after me. ObamaCare is a crony-capitalist scam.
Just like Greece, seems impossible to go back.
If OmamaCare is struck down or repealed and if a reasonably free market for insurance is allowed, Humana & UHC will drop these extras. Health insurance is mostly paid for by employers & worker-insured. An offered policy with these extras has higher premiums so negotiations in a free market will strip out all but basic and necessary needs of those paying the bills. Cadillac policies will be rare. Insurance isn’t a loving mama, it is disaster survival which leaves some pain, but you are alive.
Humman does not offer HMO’S
Vytorin is a similar combination drug which cost more than the two components yet there is no increased effectiveness.
Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) announced that it too will continue to offer important health care insurance protections that were included in the 2010 health care reform law, no matter how the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case pending before the Court. This makes Humana the second major health insurance provider to authenticate The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. The Republican party had made the act a centerpiece of the 2010 campaign for Congressional seats, falsely claiming, among other things that the PPACA was "socialized medicine."
It is not.
The announcement by Humana, authenticates the PPACA, or what the Republican Tea Partiers call Obamacare. The announcement was mildly surprising in view of the political conversation over the last two years. Humana is now also on board with Obamacare, obliterating the "socialized medicine" argument for good. In their announcement, the company vowed to keep in place many of the important elements of the PPACA. UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, announced recently that it too will continue to offer important health care insurance protections that were included in the 2010 health care reform law. On the political side, the endorsement of sorts by Humana and UnitedHealthcare, strengthens the political hand of President Barack Obama and will force presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney to back pedal on his position. Romney has stated he would "repeal and replace" Obamacare, but this makes that claim an impossible promise to keep.
With a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare on the horizon, Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) issued a press statement.
Humana has long said that all Americans deserve affordable, quality health care and that our nation needs a health care system that works for everyone. Regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the federal health care reform law, Humana is committed to keeping in place important patient protections contained in the law, including health care reform’s restrictions on lifetime limits, rescission standards, appeals and external review processes, coverage for dependents on family plans to age 26, and preventive services with no cost sharing.
Humana said that it believes its health plan members should have the peace of mind of knowing the company embraces and will maintain these common-sense provisions that add stability and security to health care coverage.
Specifically, Humana will maintain these health care reform provisions:
• Humana will not impose lifetime dollar limits on policies. Humana believes that health plan members should not have to worry that their coverage might run out when they need it most.(And Humana will charge you, or your employer, for it! -- Ed.)
• Humana will maintain the health care reform law’s rescission standard for its individual insurance policies. The company will not rescind (retroactively cancel) individual health insurance policies except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of material facts by an applicant for insurance. (And Humana will charge you, or your employer, for it! -- Ed.) Humana has long believed that when you buy an individual health plan, you should not have to worry that it might be canceled. Individuals whose policies are rescinded will continue to have available independent third party review of the rescission decision.
• Humana will continue to provide a clear and simple process for appealing claims decisions, as well as the option for health plan members to have their cases reviewed by independent review organizations. (This seems something that is obvious that any customer-friendly corporation should do. - Ed.) Humana believes in providing a clear, timely and accessible avenue for health plan members to appeal and resolve disagreements.
• Humana members will continue to receive important preventive care services with no out-of-pocket cost sharing. (And Humana will charge you, or your employer, for it! -- Ed.) Humana believes preventive care is a valuable investment in the health and well-being of its members.
• Humana will continue to permit dependent family members to remain covered on their parents’ policies up to age 26. (And Humana will charge you, or your employer, for it! -- Ed.) Humana has long believed in giving families the coverage options they need and deserve.
This is NOT Obamacare. This is about as close in magnitude to Obamacare as a small wave on Lake Michigan is to the Japanese Tsunami. Obviously Humana is in the business of selling health care, and if Obamacare doesn't force people to buy their product, well, they'll need to go back to selling it themselves. My question is that if there were marketing reasons for selling health care coverage with these features -- and Humana must have plenty of smart analysts working for it -- why didn't the company do this years, if not decades, ago????
As I see it, it's private company's decision. Let the chips fall...
“The only thing I have been worried about should the Supremes throw out Obamacare is the insurance for the under-26 crowd.”
Have a little concern for some of us middle aged people who have pre-existing conditions (such as cancer) and don’t have employer paid health care. Many people their 50’s are downsized from corporations but too young for Medicare. Once Cobra expires we must go to the market. It is very difficult to get health insurance in the private market if you have a preexisting condition and are over age 50 no matter how many years you and your employer paid into the system. If you can get a policy it is incredibly expensive and has high deductibles. We aren’t asking for a handout, just to have insurance available at a reasonable cost.
My Humana premiums damned near doubled since ‘09. But it’s NOT “Obamacare” if the company does it voluntarily, is it? Its subscribers can choose to stay with the company. Or not.
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