The $164 Rebate

[Yagents]

All of these headaches for $164?. This equates to about a 3% annual rebate compared to my personal premium.

MLR Provisions May Yield $1.4 Billion In Health Insurance Rebates.

The Los Angeles Times /Kaiser Health News (6/7, Andrews) reports, "The Obama administration estimates that starting in 2012 the medical-loss ratio (MLR) provisions may result in as many as nine million people being eligible for rebates totaling $1.4 billion; in the individual market...the average rebate could be $164 per person." The article explains, "Under the health-care overhaul, insurers beginning this year must spend at least 80 percent of the premium dollars they collect on medical claims or quality improvement efforts." In other words, profits and administrative fees cannot be more than 20 percent. Insurers "that don't meet these new 'medical loss ratio' standards have to refund the extra premiums collected to consumers." In May, in what may a harbinger of things to come, Aetna received permission from Connecticut insurance regulators to decrease its premiums on certain individual policies.

 

[VolAgent]

All of these headaches for $164?. This equates to about a 3% annual rebate compared to my personal premium.

MLR Provisions May Yield $1.4 Billion In Health Insurance Rebates.

The Los Angeles Times /Kaiser Health News (6/7, Andrews) reports, "The Obama administration estimates that starting in 2012 the medical-loss ratio (MLR) provisions may result in as many as nine million people being eligible for rebates totaling $1.4 billion; in the individual market...the average rebate could be $164 per person." The article explains, "Under the health-care overhaul, insurers beginning this year must spend at least 80 percent of the premium dollars they collect on medical claims or quality improvement efforts." In other words, profits and administrative fees cannot be more than 20 percent. Insurers "that don't meet these new 'medical loss ratio' standards have to refund the extra premiums collected to consumers." In May, in what may a harbinger of things to come, Aetna received permission from Connecticut insurance regulators to decrease its premiums on certain individual policies.

It says per person. So for a family of four, that could be $656. Certainly nothing to sneeze at. My only question, on an employer plan, who gets the rebate if the employer is paying most or all of the premium?

 

[HealthGuy]

What a F ing waste of time. The entire health bill.

 

[dgoldenz]

The cost to administrate this program to refund $1.4 billion will cost $1.5 billion.

 

[stuy119]

Better question, did they ever decide if it's 80% on the companies book, 80% on the state pool of their book, 80% on each policy, etc?