Hiccups on the Road to Health Insurance Reform
Picture buying a health insurance plan that pays a yearly maximum of $2000, with all medical expenses that are left being completely your job to take care of.
Simply having a single M.
R.
I.
may often be priced at more than that amount, and other larger medical interventions along the lines of major surgeries or chemotheraphy will inevitably cost well beyond $2000.
So you are inclined to suggest this type of "health insurance" can't be considered a real health care type of plan according to important criteria.
The existence of plans like these "mini-med" insurance plans, provided by companies like McDonald's, brings to the fore a flaw in the programmed schedule of the Obama administration's health care extensive revamping.
Among the provisos of the reforms is that most provided insurance plans are required to spend no less than 85 percent of all insurance income on the costs of medical care and expenses, rather than expenditures on costs of overhead and administrative employees.
Due to the fact that the McDonald's health program and those resembling it don't adhere to these criteria, several companies providing coverage are now suggesting they must stop providing their health plans completely.
Raising the minimum amounts of insurance coverage or needed to change the way they ran the insurance plans, many of these businesses' underlying business models would collapse.
This unforeseen problem in the system arises to a certain degree due to the required timing for the primary platforms that will result from the reforms.
Consumers who are unable to afford the cost of medically sufficient health insurance will in due course be capable of buying it via new subsidized sources, known as exchanges.
However, these markets are not going to be operational before 2014.
In the meantime, the government regulations applying to administration and overhead are taking effect almost immediately.
What this means is that the Obama administration will be required to grant some temporary exceptions to companies like McDonald's.
McDonald's defends its "mini med" insurance plans with the frequent claim that the health programs are better than having nothing.
And yet even a few Republicans, who fought health insurance reform, have no alternative but to admit that such insurance plans, which are all that some consumers can get, provide no coverage for major health difficulties or emergencies.
In the meantime, general health outcomes and the health care coverage of Americans steadily decline by the standards of other nations.
Which includes those that spend smaller amounts of funds for each citizen.
The fact that less efficient health insurance suppliers are now starting to leave the market is really a good sign that health reform was truly justified.
At some time soon, the whole process will end up being much more clear and open, and many more working families will be asked to pay much less for health insurance even as they are acquiring more extensive insurance coverage than with previous plans.
A stopgap measure necessary in the intervening time is a process to keep even the "mini med" insurance plans afloat until such time as the health insurance exchanges are operative to bring consumers a better option.
Simply having a single M.
R.
I.
may often be priced at more than that amount, and other larger medical interventions along the lines of major surgeries or chemotheraphy will inevitably cost well beyond $2000.
So you are inclined to suggest this type of "health insurance" can't be considered a real health care type of plan according to important criteria.
The existence of plans like these "mini-med" insurance plans, provided by companies like McDonald's, brings to the fore a flaw in the programmed schedule of the Obama administration's health care extensive revamping.
Among the provisos of the reforms is that most provided insurance plans are required to spend no less than 85 percent of all insurance income on the costs of medical care and expenses, rather than expenditures on costs of overhead and administrative employees.
Due to the fact that the McDonald's health program and those resembling it don't adhere to these criteria, several companies providing coverage are now suggesting they must stop providing their health plans completely.
Raising the minimum amounts of insurance coverage or needed to change the way they ran the insurance plans, many of these businesses' underlying business models would collapse.
This unforeseen problem in the system arises to a certain degree due to the required timing for the primary platforms that will result from the reforms.
Consumers who are unable to afford the cost of medically sufficient health insurance will in due course be capable of buying it via new subsidized sources, known as exchanges.
However, these markets are not going to be operational before 2014.
In the meantime, the government regulations applying to administration and overhead are taking effect almost immediately.
What this means is that the Obama administration will be required to grant some temporary exceptions to companies like McDonald's.
McDonald's defends its "mini med" insurance plans with the frequent claim that the health programs are better than having nothing.
And yet even a few Republicans, who fought health insurance reform, have no alternative but to admit that such insurance plans, which are all that some consumers can get, provide no coverage for major health difficulties or emergencies.
In the meantime, general health outcomes and the health care coverage of Americans steadily decline by the standards of other nations.
Which includes those that spend smaller amounts of funds for each citizen.
The fact that less efficient health insurance suppliers are now starting to leave the market is really a good sign that health reform was truly justified.
At some time soon, the whole process will end up being much more clear and open, and many more working families will be asked to pay much less for health insurance even as they are acquiring more extensive insurance coverage than with previous plans.
A stopgap measure necessary in the intervening time is a process to keep even the "mini med" insurance plans afloat until such time as the health insurance exchanges are operative to bring consumers a better option.
