In Texas . . . 92 percent of consumers who purchased individual policies are expected to get rebates because insurers spent too little of their premium dollars on medical care
"This alone is not going to make health insurance affordable for large numbers of people, but it is getting excess administrative cost out of the system," says Larry Levitt, a study author
Send us a comment if you (or somebody you know) has received a medical insurance rebate check or letter
Note: From the Mason County News, Letters to the Editor, July 25, 2012. Rebate checks from health insurance companies are dropping in the mail all over the country due to requirements of the Affordable Care Act. A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation says Texas consumers and businesses will be receiving an estimated $186 million in rebates – $1.3 billion nationally. So far, the media is otherwise reporting no major complaints coming from pooh-poohers of the health insurance reform law.
Dear Gerry,
I received a shocking letter last week—along with a $400 check. From, of all places, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. It said: “The Affordable Care Act requires the BCBSTX to issue a rebate to you if BCBSTX does not spend at least 80 percent of the premiums it receives on health care services such as doctors and hospital bills, and activities to improve health care quality…no more than 20 percent of premiums may be spent on administrative costs such as salaries, sales, and advertising.”
My husband and I are self-employed and pay for our own health care; some years we have insurance, some years not. In 2010, because I had promised my mom I would get a mammogram and colonoscopy when I turned 50, I signed us up for a Blue Cross Blue Shield high deductible plan, figuring that I would at least get the cheaper insurance-negotiated prices for those procedures (and if any problems were diagnosed, then future treatment would be covered). Turned out that BCBSTX was already implementing some of the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (known also as ObamaCare), including one that directed insurance companies to pay for certain preventative tests regardless of the deductible. That provision alone saved me several thousand dollars, which made it less painful to pay for the quarterly premiums. And now the rebate check.
Finally I feel like I am getting something for my money. This letter is to pass on word of my experience with President Obama’s health care overhaul. Basically, I approve.
Carey Burkett
30 comments:
not a bad start.
ObamaCare is just an excuse to give free medical care to minorities in the cities so they can stay alive without working.
Mitt Romney is my man. At least we all have a chance to be rich with his plan for America.
Besides, both Clint and Jenna endorsed him.
If this anonymous statement "ObamaCare is just an excuse to give free medical care to minorities in the cities so they can stay alive without working" has any merit after knowing the parts of the bill then the last 75 years of Social Security would have made us a Socialized Economy and Romney wouldn't have Bain Capital hanging around his neck. It’s about health care.
And yes Social Security is colorblind unlike the anonymous writer. The Health Care Act works to make the payers of insurance get a fairer shake by broadening the pool of payers into the system. Those currently insured are paying for the uninsured healthcare visits to the emergency rooms. The Health Care Act is a start towards fairness.
The anonymous writer probably is uninsured and afraid that he may have to now contribute to paying for his or her own health care bills. I support the act and look forward to the day when the anonymous writer gets healthcare (including mental healthcare) outside the emergency room.
hey anonymous folks,
THIS IS ABOUT HEALTH CARE, NOT NAME CALLING.
Stick to the topic please.
Oh c'mon Les the typical liberal.
These right wingers deserve their names. This country is going into a hate riddled manure pile mainly because of these fools.
Write your own wuss analysis and let the truth speak for itself.
Les,
I'm sure the hate wingers are laughing that you are protecting their honor.
How naive can you get?
The conversation IS about health care - and Romney is a pathetic liar.
Mind your own comments, Mr. Self-Righteous.
I would like to know why the right wing thinks its ok to pay for free emergency room medical care for the uninsured with their taxes when O'RomanyCare would force people to be responsible for their own live?
Isn't individual responsibility what the right wing is so adament about.
Gimme some rationale, righties!
You say liberal like it's a bad thing. Do you want to discuss an issue or just shout to yourself?
Bob puts these stories out there for discussion as they are pretty interesting but there's not much that's interesting in trading insults. You can turn your hatred inward with insults and you'd probably enjoy that. But you're anonymous and have an anonymous life to live. Insult away but you don't say much that way.
This legislation is proceeding and a discussion of it's parts will benefit you even if you'd like to hurl insults at the right and left.
Yes, I do have insurance through my job and I do support the legislation. Whether it has immediate short term benefits to me isn't the point, it is already having an impact on folks with pre-existing conditions, women's health and folks under 26 years of age. That's a good start as is the $400 rebate and the reason behind the rebate.
If you're not interested in discussions or articles, the internet is a big place....
Liberals like Les is why the right wing beats democrats on a regular basis.
There is no rational factual discussion with these Fox News brain clones.
Les can talk all he wants about the virtues of ObamaCare. It makes no difference to the neoconservatives.
The fact that a half black man is the president who put it into law - while some rich white social retard who implemented the same plan in Mass is being supported by these goobers - tells us everything we need to know about the right wing.
Generational death may be the only solution.
Les,
Instead of doing your silly and futile counter-argument to such ignorance as put forth by the first Anonymous above (about Obama's national RomneyCare law), how about redirecting your energy to something constructive by going out and talking to local small businesses about the benefits of "ObamaCare"?
Bob,
Thanks for the chance to comment.
Anonymous sure has a lot of personalities, not just schizophrenic anymore.
I enjoy the replies especially the paranoid ones that are way too fearful of a conservative backlash. Hell, that's not paranoia - it's paralysis of the mind. Paralysis is the most conservative state of all, leads to mind rot.
As far as giving credit and appreciating the efforts of President Obama and the Congress that got the bill to him, I am saying thanks to these folks. (Complaints to follow and are welcomed.)
Health care is simply an important issue especially to those who need it AND it's not too late to appreciate the legislation (it will be there for you from now on).
As far as taking an argument to business folks, a sick workforce is not much use to any employer. Most jobs still want you there and not sick. Just ask 'em for yourself. But then you may start a dialogue and that would make you a target of your fears.
NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney dropped by the Borowitz Report today and gave what some are calling his most candid interview ever:
Reporter: "What do you see as the biggest challenge of your campaign going forward?"
Romney: "Well, I suppose the biggest challenge would be the same one I’ve faced all my life: that no one likes me. But as I’ve found in the past, money usually takes care of that."
Reporter: "What do you need to do to persuade the right wing of your party that you’re one of them?
A: Well, first and foremost, I have to do a better job of convincing them that I believe in the crazy things they do. The problem is, the media keeps emphasizing aspects of my résumé that make me sound sane, like when as Governor I gave people in Massachusetts a good health care system.
See, there’s stuff in my biography that would help me with the Republican base—like the time in prep school when I pinned that gay boy to the ground and cut his hair off — but that gets little if any appropriate coverage.
This is a clear case of liberal media bias, and I wish they would stop being so positive."
Reporter: "How are you working to change the perception that you’re sane?"
Romney: "Well, obviously, by saying stuff that makes me sound like I’m off my rocker. Sheldon Adelson, the Jew casino owner has been super helpful with this. If I could just channel that guy, I’d be ready for the booby hatch! I mean, you want to talk about a few bricks shy of a load.
Anyway, Sheldon has given me some of my best lines for my stump speech. Like the one about how on Day One I’m going to move Obamacare and Planned Parenthood to Iran and then bomb the hell out of all three. That’s pure Sheldon."
Reporter: "Thanks, Mr. Romney. Good luck with your insincere looney tunes campaign."
The head of the RNC said today:
"the calls for Romney to release his past years tax returns (as Romney's father did and as many other sensible Republicans are demanding of Romney) is a "distraction' similar to the birthers saying Obama was not born in America or a territory."
In fact, the birthers represent only an extreme minority of the Republican Party base. That certainly is a distraction.
Yet over 60% of the nation's voters believe Romney should release his tax returns, including many Republicans.
To release Romney's tax returns would simply be a normal candidate's respect for voters to make an informed decision.
Moreover, Obama DID release his official State of Hawaii birth certificate - but the birthers refuse to believe it is real.
So if the RNC believes the calls for Romney's tax returns is really the same silliness as the birthers, than common sense says the Republican Party must think something is wrong with Romney's past financials.
The RNC also disrespects 60% of the nation as being out of touch with their justifiable voter information demands.
1) What does that say about the RNC if they think Americans are not entitled to know the truth?
and
2) Willard Romney should release his last 5-10 years tax returns - unless he is hiding something, and let the American people find out if it was a "distraction" - and decide what is the truth or not.
At the very least, Romney's arrogance and voter disregard is the reason he is losing more ground everyday in the poll numbers.
Romney is maybe the most inept presidential candidate since Al Gore.
No, he is much worse than Gore.
Les says in response to one Anonymous above:
"As far as taking an argument to business folks, a sick workforce is not much use to any employer. Most jobs still want you there and not sick. Just ask 'em for yourself. But then you may start a dialogue and that would make you a target of your fears."
COP OUT, COP OUT, COP OUT.
Romney picks another elitist white guy as his VP pick.
The struggling middle class and the elderley are in real trouble if they take over the "White" House.
Talk about even more money floating up to the rich and less fair economic democracy for the middle class.
What a combination: Mr Inept and Ayn Rand's Young Frankenstein.
Obamacare surprise in Mason County, TX: A $400 rebate check from medical insurance company
'nuf said.
"nuf said" Les says:
"nuf said"
MOre Cop Out
The latest lie now from the Romney/Ryan privatizaion of America ticket is that Obama took $700 million out of the Medicare budget.
Of course Obama put the same money back into the Affordable Care Act (O'RomnnyCare) so seniors could pay less going forward with their health care expenses.
In summary, the white, right wing Christian GOP:
1) hates a women's right to control her own health care,
2) hates voters who think independently,
3) hates poor people, especially minorities,
4) hates intellectual analysis,
5) hates protecting the public from corporate pollution and dangerous faulty products,
6) hates public education,
7) hates a multicultural American society
8) hates everything that is forward thinking
9) hates compassionate government
10) hates the truth.
What more do voters need to know to makes sure this crazy xenophobic anti-American party is not allowed to get back in power?
What a joke the Tea Party has become. Now they have sold their minds to Romney.
How pathetic and desparate they have become.
Ron Paul is the only true conservative anymore.
These racist "white guy hate speech" posts are getting real tiresome. I have always felt that liberals were the most racist of all.
Romney-Ryan = The End of Medicare
Romney-Ryan = The End of Equality for Women
Romney-Ryan = More Corporate Welfare
Romney-Ryan = Less Middle Class
Romney-Ryan = Economic Drought
Romney-Ryan = No Solution For Farmers
Romney-Ryan = Elitist Anglo-Saxon Ideology
Ryan-Romney = The Real GOP Economic Plan
Paul Ryan has no business experience and no foreign policy experience.
Ryan is the same age as one of Willard Mitt Romney's son.
What happens to America if Romney dies after elected (heaven forbid) ?
Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan's intellectual hero, was an atheist and despised the poor.
Now that Ryan is the VP pick for Mitt RomneyCare, he says he doesn't like her unChristian views.
I wonder what Ryan thinks about Jesus's advocacy for the poor?
Mitt Romney - Paul Ryan is the most anti-middle class and anti-labor presidential ticket in decades.
And I don't mean labor unions. I mean all laborers.
They would be the end of fair, inflation-adjusted pay raises for all private sector workers.
That was what Bain Capital was and still is all about.
anonymice
Tim Pawlenty, shunned by Romney for the VP pick (and notified he was not picked by ......Romney's SON), gave the Romney campaign SEVERAL years of tax returns for his vetting process.
Now, even Ryan is only going to show Two years of tax returns.
How stupid can the GOP voters be when their own must show Romney their tax returns but Romney and Ryan don't have to show GOP voters their tax returns?
Les is wrong. The GOP voters deserve every name they are called when it refers to their intelligence.
Welcome to the new plutocracy, Tea Baggers.
WPOA Watchdog doesn't like the truth.
What's tiresome is how the Tea Party GOP pretends their racism is about birth certificates and socialism.
What about Reagan's bailout of Chrysler? Why isn't that "socialism" from these revisionist history bigots.
Does Richard know that Mormons think black skin is a curse from the Mormon devil?
And Les the faux Democrat thinks all Anonymous's are mice? What happened to open-mindedness from liberals?
Phony WPOA Watch, aka "they don't think I'm God" pissed off ex Board member, is doing the typical new GOP confusion tactic.
Accuse the opponent of' what they are doing themselves.
All anyone has to do is look at the hate of Obama when his policies would be considered the same as a moderate Republican just 15 years ago.
America is about moderation, balance, and compassion, not the bigoted, elitist hate spewed out by the ignorant Tea Party pandering GOP.
Ryan voted for the $700 billion bank bailout, a massive highway bill that included the “Bridge to Nowhere” and other big-ticket priorities when George W. Bush was president — going to bat for a high-spending big government GOP agenda that the tea party base now looks on with disdain.
Ryan’s voting record shows that he was willing to vote for expensive government programs, even when other fiscal "conservatives" said no.
In the fall of 2008, Ryan voted for TARP.
Later in 2008, he voted for loans to help rescue the auto industry, making him one of just 32 Republicans to do so — and his vote came after Romney wrote The New York Times op-ed titled “Let Detroit go bankrupt.”
So Ryan is a closet socialist?
So, smong the biggest items in Ryan’s spending record was his vote in the fall of 2008 for the $700 billion TARP financial bailout, which drew resistance from many House Republicans despite the Bush administration’s warnings that failing to act could cause an all-out collapse of the financial system.
Aren't these the same policies Obama has continued as US President?
Right! Obama the "Socialist?"
Massive GOP hypocrisy.
WPOA Watchdog please remove that creepy picture of the eyeball. That is just too weird.
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