Health Care Policy Update: Keep Your Insurance Plan and Doctor? Not So Fast

The President and Washington Democrats want the American people to think that insurance coverage offered in the health care law’s exchanges will look identical to generous employer-sponsored insurance options offered in today’s market. This may not be the case. 

A recent Wall Street Journal article says that health insurance companies are now starting to create and price new insurance plans to sell in the exchange. To satisfy consumer demands to keep costs down, insurers want hospitals to accept deep discounts from their customary commercial plan rates. They hope hospitals will take lower payment rates in exchange for restricted provider networks. Restricting provider networks allows hospitals to gain higher patient volumes. These arrangements are one of the only tools industry has left under the law to hold down premiums.

Although some uninsured people will gain coverage in the new exchanges, the CBO estimates eight million hard working Americans will lose the coverage they have today. These people and their families will be forced to enter the exchange to purchase a government mandated and approved insurance plan. Americans may quickly discover that the President’s health care law took away their robust employer-sponsored health care plan and replaced it with a government exchange plan that limits their provider choices.

In 2009, President Obama pledged, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.” Four years later, the American people are finding out the cold, hard truth. The President’s health care law will restrict people’s ability to choose the provider or hospital that meets their specific needs. Instead, the President hands that power over to the federal government.

Adding insult to injury, this week the Associated Press warned the American people that applying for Obamacare is going to be as complicated as compiling a tax return. The eight million people who stand to lose their employer-sponsored coverage can now look forward to enduring reams of bureaucratic paperwork just to find out if they qualify for a subsidy. Then, when they go to buy insurance, they may find this new, government mandated insurance is not comparable to what they had before.

Health Care Headlines

The Wall Street Journal: “Another Big Step in Reshaping Health Care”  Hospitals and health insurers are locking horns over how much health-care providers will get paid under new insurance plans that will be sold as the federal health law is rolled out. The results will play a major role in determining how much insurers will ultimately charge consumers for these policies, which will be offered to people through exchanges in each state.

Associated Press: “Applying for Obama Plan Not Easy”  Applying for benefits under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul could be as daunting as doing your taxes. The government’s draft application runs 15 pages for a three-person family.

The Washington Examiner: “Five Guys: Obamacare Will Boost Burger Prices”  The fight over Obamacare, so far held at the 30,000 foot level, is about to hit home. The latest impact hot off the grill: prices of burgers and hot dogs at Five Guys are going to rise to cover the President’s mandated insurance coverage.

The Hill: “Medicare Trustee Doubts Future Funding for Medicaid Expansion”  A Medicare trustee is questioning whether the federal government will maintain its commitment to foot most of the cost of expanding Medicaid under the healthcare reform law.