Insurers Tell Congress: Beware Rate Shock If Obamacare Enrollment Extended

[TeaBagsAreForCups]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Dylan Scott – October 29, 2013, 6:00 AM EDT5468

The health insurance industry is planning to warn members of Congress that extending Obamacare's open enrollment period, which a group of Democratic senators have begun to urge the White House to do, could have a disastrous effects on insurance premiums.

- SNIP -

The problem, according to the industry, is that an extended enrollment period could skew their calculations for 2015 premiums. Here's why.

Right now, insurers need to submit 2015 rates to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services between April 1 and April 30, 2014. If the enrollment period ends in March, as currently scheduled, insurers will know exactly what their customer base looks like as they make projections about their 2015 rates.


Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/insurers-tell-congress-beware-rate-shock-if-obamacare-enrollment-extended

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[Lasher]

1. Then rates would plummet if the enrollment period were shortened, right?

[SansACause]

15. Exactly.

Somehow, adding the number of people who would have signed up if Healthcare.gov were working properly is going to send rates skyrocketing? Do they think we are all FOX News stupid?

[Mass]

2. Yep, because we do not have sticker shock right now because of all the substandard insurances they

sold and that need to be replaced (some of which should never have been called insurance to start with).
Who are they kidding?

[freshwest]

7. Only the media will be fooled *wink, wink* as they carry their lies to the public...

[Maeve]

8. Honest reporting is HARD!!!!

You have to do research and stuff.....

[freshwest]

9. And honest reporting would get them fired, to boot! The red light's on, read the script!

[cynzke]

12. You know....

It reminds me of that old game called "Telephone" where you whisper something to someone and then they whisper it to the next person and so on. The more people who play, the more the original story travels and the more it gets distorted. That is what is causing so much panic and confusion over ACA, not to mention the deliberate attempts to mislead. Granted the ACA has serious flaws, but some of them have been blown way out of proportion or deliberately distorted to scare people and render failure.

[TDale313]

3. Of course they did.

gotta hand it to 'em. They never miss a chance to gouge people.

[florida08]

4. this is why we need medicare for all

[jsr]

10. Yep. Cut out the leeches and vampires.

[bigdarryl]

5. STUPID Corporate democrats

I wonder what there answer is going to be with this news

[Theyletmeeatcake2]

6. Oh no!!!! Does that mean the House loses.?

The sounds emanating from these people remind me of the pig scene out of Deliverance .....Fuck 'em I say!!!

[bemildred]

11. So it must be going very well. nt

[The Stranger]

13. Why in the fuck can't we have Congressional hearings on the health care insurance rates?

Bring the CEO's in to ask them questions about "rate shock."

The Republicans haul in governmental contractors -- why are we unable simply to do the same?

Harry Reid, are you out there?

[alc]

14. the MLR is important here

Insurance companies have been returning premiums if they don't spend 80-85% on medical costs. Now, they are likely to have lots of people who need care for 4 months and relatively few people who don't need care. That means very high medical costs. They will turn the MLR around and say they need premiums 20-25% above the costs they've had for these plans.

Regulators will come back and say "but you'll have lots more healthy people next year so calculate it that way." They'll respond that they were told they'd have "lots of healthy people in 2014" and didn't get that so they won't count on it again. Healthy people very well may decide they don't want insurance in the numbers the government says. Insurers will go with the hard numbers they gather instead of some assumptions from the government. And they will claim they worked with the MLR in good faith in previous years and returned premiums so that med costs were 80% of the premium so now the regulators need to work in good faith and allow premiums 20+% over medical costs.

[The Stranger]

16. So some hearings would help us get somewhere on this.

This should be in the Congressional Record, not lost on some website somewhere.

[stillcool]

17. insurers tell congress..

It's never Congress telling Insurers....or any industry what they can or can't do. That oversight thing is in reverse.

[Yo_Mama]

18. They just need to extend the rate-setting date for a month or two

Slow enrollments will also produce rate shock - but when this is cleared up, there will still be millions who need to enroll, and it will take time for them to get in and to show up in claims data. They'd be better off using June, honestly.

And we already have HUGE rate shock - we don't need to have an artificially short period generating more.

[Skidmore]

19. Does this warning imply collusion?

Smacks of a conspiracy to gouge the public.