Posted on 01/13/2013 11:35:01 AM PST by TurboZamboni
Without a change in proposed federal rules, the continuation of a Minnesota health insurance program for people with costly illnesses could cost health plans and their subscribers more than $60 million next year, state officials say.
The issue involves a long-standing program called the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association, which the Legislature created in 1976. It helps provide coverage for Minnesotans who can't find insurance on the open market, often because of a costly pre-existing health condition.
One of the key changes coming in 2014 with the federal Affordable Care Act is that insurers no longer will be able to deny people coverage based on pre-existing conditions. To make sure that the expense of covering these patients is evenly spread among insurers, the federal law will give health plans a chance to receive "reinsurance" payments if they happen to attract many patients with costly conditions.
The money will come from a fund that insurers across the country will pay into, but health plans in Minnesota likely won't collect much money from it, said Kirby Erickson, executive director of the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association. That's because many Minnesota residents with pre-existing conditions are covered through MCHA, and current plans would let people maintain that coverage in 2014 and beyond.
Minnesota officials argued in a Dec. 31 letter to the federal government that MCHA should be able to collect reinsurance payments, but current regulations wouldn't allow it.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
When you add a mandate to cover pre-existing conditions the cost of health care will skyrocket for ALL of us. Politicians do not understand this simple fact, or maybe they don’t care. The taxpayer, after all, is nothing more than a money machine for Washington D.C.’s wasteful ways.
Minnesota? Good.
What an idiot he is, and C R U E L.
No reason a Republican can't take that seat away next election ~
“No reason a Republican can’t take that seat away next election “
No, liberals are folks too stupid to understand cause and effect.
Sorry, Minnesota, but one size fits all, even if it doesn’t.
All the idiots the obamakkkare financial analyses assume will die from poor care will be his own supporters. This is al franken we are talking about. he stole $600 mil from democrats. they’ll never forgive him and obamakkkare won’t be killing them off fast enough.
those of us with preexisting conditions should probably just
euthanize ourselves for the greater good then?
Pre-existing condition cannot be “insured” because it has already happened and trying to do something like that will bankrupt the system and drive it to a government solution...which will be far worse in terms of quality of care and ultimately (due to rationing) in terms of extent of care.
People get sick and die. We are not going to stop that. A free market solution means the most people will get the best care. Just like it has meant that the most people will rise in their economic standing and create the envy of the world when it comes to standard of living and individual wealth. That is really what this debate is about. The socialists and marxists wanting to foist control on the economy and destroy the free market.
The entire idea of insurance is that you can assess the risk of an event in a pool of people who are paying premiums. As soon as you say that somebody gets to wait until AFTER they have an event to join the pool, you are no longer talking about something rational.
Irrationality is the sole province of government.
“Pre-existing conditions” is a straw-man argument any way because current law forbids insurance companies from denying coverage after one year of the condition treatment...see Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
I saw a thread here a couple of days ago that essentially said the Republicans are running from the clown like scared bunny rabbits. I know Minnesota is swirling down the Democrat toilet, but aren't there at least a few fingers desperately clutching the rim of the bowl?
Forget it.
We’re talking Minnesota, where Joey Buttafucco would win running as a Democrat.
It isn’t insurance if you are covering preexisting conditions. It is like getting a car covered for the accident one had a week earlier and expecting the insurer to pay for the repairs. Preexisting condition coverage cannot be solved by allowing people to get insurance after the fact without any financial cost. There are legitimate issues around getting people covered with existing problems but the solution in Obamacare is not it.
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