Greenbeard
Gold Member
Tort Reform and Portability(being able to change jobs and or move and keep your current plan), and access to Companies out of state are 3 things that Obama care fails to address, and they just so happen to be the 3 Best ways to lower the cost of Health Insurance.
That's not quite true. First of all, states can get federal money under this law to implement and evaluate alternatives to their current tort laws. It's true that the law doesn't institute a new set of liability laws at the federal level; instead, it offers funding to states to innovate and demonstrate which forms of tort reform are most effective.
Second, this law takes steps toward portability. The major step, of course, is the construction of the exchanges. Employers can take their employees into exchanges and states can merge the individual and group markets, meaning a plan obtained through your employer at work can move with you if you change jobs (if your state sets it up like this). There are also free choice vouchers allowing employees to take their employer's contribution and buy their own plan in the exchanges, if the employee's expected contribution under the company plan is high enough. Both of these are somewhat limited at present but they set the stage for much more portability in the future.
Third, not only does the law require every exchange to offer at least two multi-state plans (overseen by OPM), it contains provisions for the offering of plans in more than one state. It does the latter by assisting with the formation of interstate compacts between willing states, with guidance to come from a joint effort of HHS and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.