Penelope
Diamond Member
- Jul 15, 2014
- 60,260
- 15,767
- 2,210
The bill, which passed the House but is certain to be amended in the Senate, represents the GOP's effort to deliver on its promise to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, a law critics say has driven up insurance costs and is unsustainable.
The bill requires insurers to raise premiums 30 percent for anyone seeking to buy a policy on the individual market who had a lapse in coverage of 63 days or more in the previous year.
(snip)
The higher premiums would start in 2019, giving people enough time to get insured and avoid the penalties.
The budget office estimates that states that are home to one-sixth of the U.S. population, or more than 50 million people, would ask for the waiver.
States that opt for a waiver would have to find a way to try to keep premiums affordable, such as creating high-risk pools for people with serious medical problems. In the past, many state-run high-risk pools offered policies that some consumers still found too costly.
"That high-risk pool has to exist, but it does not have to offer affordable coverage," said Cynthia Cox, associate director of health reform and private insurance at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Insurance companies, she said, could use high premiums to avoid taking on sick people.
Republicans say the gap-in-coverage surcharges will help stabilize premiums for everyone by getting people to carry insurance at all times instead of waiting until they get sick. Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican, said such provisions are "a simple but important reform that will encourage patients to enroll in coverage and stay enrolled."
The legislation also enables states to obtain a waiver that would allow insurers to charge higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions if they had a gap in coverage. Under the current law, the sick and the healthy must be charged the same.
GOP health plan could be costly for people with coverage gaps
Its so funny because so many of you were so against the mandate. Looks like the joke is on yous. takes for taking the rest of us down to pits of hell.
The bill requires insurers to raise premiums 30 percent for anyone seeking to buy a policy on the individual market who had a lapse in coverage of 63 days or more in the previous year.
(snip)
The higher premiums would start in 2019, giving people enough time to get insured and avoid the penalties.
The budget office estimates that states that are home to one-sixth of the U.S. population, or more than 50 million people, would ask for the waiver.
States that opt for a waiver would have to find a way to try to keep premiums affordable, such as creating high-risk pools for people with serious medical problems. In the past, many state-run high-risk pools offered policies that some consumers still found too costly.
"That high-risk pool has to exist, but it does not have to offer affordable coverage," said Cynthia Cox, associate director of health reform and private insurance at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Insurance companies, she said, could use high premiums to avoid taking on sick people.
Republicans say the gap-in-coverage surcharges will help stabilize premiums for everyone by getting people to carry insurance at all times instead of waiting until they get sick. Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican, said such provisions are "a simple but important reform that will encourage patients to enroll in coverage and stay enrolled."
The legislation also enables states to obtain a waiver that would allow insurers to charge higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions if they had a gap in coverage. Under the current law, the sick and the healthy must be charged the same.
GOP health plan could be costly for people with coverage gaps
Its so funny because so many of you were so against the mandate. Looks like the joke is on yous. takes for taking the rest of us down to pits of hell.
