This week on “The Journal Editorial Report” with Paul Gigot, columnist Kim Strassel talks about how ObamaCare helped the GOP pick up a governor’s seat in Kentucky as the law’s troubled co-ops continue to collapse.
Dr. Christina Bovelsky runs Peachtree Family Medicine in Middletown Delaware, and offers a unique approach to medicine. Rather than dealing with traditional insurance, co-pays and deductibles, Dr. Bovelsky’s patients pay a one-year membership fee. This fee includes between two and four office visits, an annual physical exam, and small procedures like electrocardiograms and strep tests.
The Obama administration officials are touting low premiums available during open enrollment on Healthcare.gov, but for many new patients receiving coverage under the ObamaCare exchanges, the sticker shock of sky-high deductibles leaves them just as vulnerable as before they were covered. The New York Times found that in many states, more than half the insurance plans offered on the federal exchanges had deductibles of $3,000 or more.
Add 250 New York cancer patients to the long list of victims of ObamaCare’s lies — just one more snapshot of the program’s ongoing death spiral.
These New Yokers are getting treatment at world-renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center — but their ObamaCare policies are about to vanish, as Health Republic, one of the largest health insurers on New York state’s exchange, and the only one to cover Sloan-Kettering treatment, is shutting down at month’s end after losing $130 million.
A local family that bought what they thought was a premium plan discovered they were going to have to pay thousands of dollars per year out of pocket for what other insurance plans would have covered.
Assess employers with 50 or more employees that do not offer coverage and have at least one full-time employee who receives a premium tax credit a fee of $2,000 per full-time employee, excluding the first 30 employees from the assessment. Employers with 50 or more employees that offer coverage but have at least one full-time employee receiving a premium tax credit, will pay the lesser of $3,000 for each employee receiving a premium credit or $2,000 for each full-time employee, excluding the first 30 employees from the assessment. Require employers with more than 200 employees to automatically enroll employees into health insurance plans offered by the employer. Employees may opt out of coverage.
Permit employers to offer employees rewards of up to 30%, increasing to 50% if appropriate, of the cost of coverage for participating in a wellness program and meeting certain health-related standards. Establish 10-state pilot programs to permit participating states to apply similar rewards for participating in wellness programs in the individual market.
Create a new “Cadillac” tax on high-cost insurance policies.
Permit states to form health care choice compacts and allow insurers to sell policies in any state participating in the compact. (Compacts may not take effect before January 1, 2016)
Create an essential health benefits package that provides a comprehensive set of services, covers at least 60% of the actuarial value of the covered benefits, limits annual cost-sharing to the current law HSA limits ($5,950/individual and $11,900/family in 2010), and is not more extensive than the typical employer plan.