COBRA Subsidy Extended

HR 3326 was signed into law this week. The bill (actually a DOD bill) provides the following benefits to those going onto COBRA (or currently in their first 9 months of COBRA):

1. Subsidy on federal COBRA will be extended from 9 months to 15 months at 65% paid by the employer (no information yet on Cal-COBRA)

2. Subsidy qualification has been extended to 2/28/2010 and notification is required to anyone who exhausted the 9 months subsidy already (and is still within the 15 month window)

3. Extends unemployment benefits an additional 6 months

How Will the Senate Bill Impact the Insurance Companies and Their Customers?

How will the Senate bill impact health insurance companies and their customers?Even better, how will it impact a not-for-profit health plan--one with a reputation for being a "good guy" that continually wins the country's top awards for member services and with historic profits of less than 1% of premium? And, one that is operating in Massachusetts--a market that has already been through much of

The Senate Bill--Wall Street Likes It and the House Will Have To

In morning trading HMO stocks are once again hitting 52-week highs with each of the major publicly traded plans up 3% to 6% from their Friday gains.Hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are also doing pretty well.Liberals have been talking all weekend long about having to make the Senate bill better—and more like the House bill. That just won’t happen. Reid’s 60-vote majority is held together

Coal in Your Christmas Stocking?

Is there anyone left, on either side of the political spectrum, who wants the Senate health care bill to pass?Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour had this to say about the Senate bill last week, “This health care plan is like mackerel in the moonlight. Longer that it's out there, the more that it stinks.”And yesterday, MoveOn said this about the Senate Democratic health care bill in an

CA Healthy Families In Jeopardy Again

There is renewed fear that the state may have to shutter the Healthy Families program and remove hundreds of thousands of California children from the health insurance plan (SCHIP).

Apparently, CMS has "determined" that a special tax extension plan adopted by the CA Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Scharzenegger (a 2.35% tax paid BY health insurers) fails to meet the CMS reading of the rules regarding such taxes.

If resolution is not found before the end of 2010, hundreds of thousands of children in California could be removed from the plan.

Oh, Ease Up on Joe Already

The Democratic rhetoric coming from Capitol Hill today beating on Joe Lieberman is, in the least, disingenuous.The public option has not been tenable for months. It was not just Lieberman that has been against it in all forms--robust Medicare-like or the neutered variety in the House and Senate bills.All of the liberals claiming they weren't going to vote for a health bill without a public option

Public Option Waning, Now Annual Benefit Caps?

It appears that the public option portion of the health care reform legislation may be coming off of the table soon, if not already. There is talk of replacing it with a private insurance, non-profit version overseen by the government. Also, there is talk of at least a temporary reduction in the Medicare age to 55.

Apparently part of todays' compromise has to do with trying to keep premiums "reasonable". Since the bill would uncap lifetime maximums, the Senate has agreed (behind closed doors again) to allow and implement annual benefit caps on health plans.

California domiciled health plans currently do not impose an annual benefit maximum and PPO plans allow that number to be set at the lifetime maximum benefit of the plan. Only the MRMIP and compatible MRMIP "graduate plans" involve annual maximum benefits, and those are capped at $75,000 per year.

Senate Bill To Allow Benefit Caps

The Medicare Buy-In Is Dead--The Liberals Are Now the Swing Votes in Health Care

The Medicare buy-in idea is dead. After Democratic Congressman Weiner's candid comment, “Never mind the camel’s nose, we’ve got his head and neck in the tent," no senator from the likes of Arkansas or Indiana is going to vote for this.Add to that yesterday's critical Washington Post editorial and the sharp response from the various doc and hospital lobbies and this was dead before Reid's request

California Healthy Families Back In Business

In the summer I blogged about the closing of new enrollments in the Healthy Families program for children (SCHIP). Recently the program received additional funding and has re-opened to new enrollments. This is very good news for thousands of California families who need this low-cost health insurance coverage for their children. For current information on the California Healthy Families program, follow the link below.

California Healthy Families (SCHIP)

Closer on Healthcare Reform

It looks like we are getting very close to a final version of the Senate reform bill. Broad agreement has been reached on the Senate version, which is very close to the already-passed House version.

CNN Story Dec 8th

Selling Insurance Across State Lines--Now the Dems Are Pushing the Idea--Why It Won't Work

A favorite Republican health care soundbite calls for making the health insurance system more efficient by letting health plans sell across state lines.Now Democrats are jumping on that idea. The latest public option idea would have the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) contract with national not-for-profit health plans and introduce those plans into local insurance exchanges--that would be

Liberal Demands Over Giving Up the Public Option Threaten Health Care Deals

I actually feel for Harry Reid this morning.He was on his way. He had mastered an incredibly fine balance in his health care bill.No it wasn’t real health care reform and it wasn’t going to bend any curves but the Dems long ago gave up on that looking for one big political “W” instead.The liberals were finally backing off on the public option there never were the votes for. But even the “neutered

The Latest Version of the Public Option—The Democrats Could Have Saved Us Lot of Time If This is What They Call a “Public Option”

If the latest version of the public option is something that will give its proponents reason to argue they still have a way to "make the health insurance market much more competitive," then a motor scooter is a Ferrari.The details are still fuzzy but the word is that senators are working toward a compromise over the controversial public option that would create something that:Would be run by the

2009 a Year of Surprises and Change for the EHR Technology Market

2009 a Year of Surprises and Change for the EHR Technology Marketby DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER"Oft expectation fails, and most oft thereWhere most it promises; and oft it hitsWhere hope is coldest, and despair most fits." All's Well That Ends Well (II, i, 145-147)2009 began with a bang for legacy Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendors, promising strong sales and windfall profits

Good For Orszag--Budget Director Discusses Cost Containment in Dem Bills

I was encouraged by remarks White House Budget chief Peter Orszag made in Washington yesterday.There has been substantial debate in recent days about whether the pending House and Senate bills have the kind of robust cost containment we need to really "bend" any health care cost "curves."Readers of this blog know of my concern that these bills amount more to expensive entitlement expansions than