| Well it rurns out that the conclusion that Sec 102 bans all private individual health insurance is based on not one but two misreadings of the bill.
I covered the first one at length in a blog post last weekend Wingnut 102: How HR3200 Outlaws Private Health Insurance.
If you back out of the text a little you will see that this section is called "SEC. 102. PROTECTING THE CHOICE TO KEEP CURRENT COVERAGE'' and fulfills Obama's promise that if you like what you have you get to keep it. Now there are some limitations, if effect you can't keep some sham insurance that really doesn't cover anything, like car insurance there are some legal minimums, plus some limitations on how much the insurer can change the plan or try to discriminate between various sectors of the risk pool, but on the whole it protects your current policy from the government AND from your insurance company. But it doesn't outlaw anything except selling crappy plans not meeting the new standards to new customers. Private companies who wish to participate in the new insurance Exchanges and write qualified individual policies are free to do so.
The second misreading has two versions. The simple version has no new enrollment in individual plans right from day one after enactment. The more subtle version suggests that the legislation sets up a gap in coverage with private plans barred from writing policies in between the enactment of the bill and whenever the bureaucrats finally get the Exchange up and running, thus leaving everyone who might lose their insurance in between in the bag. Well I covered this one in my second post Wingnut 102A: When private insurance is outlawed only outlaws will have insurance. All of this is the simple result of not understanding the definition of 'Y 1'. It doesn't mean the first year after enactment of the bill, it is specifically defined in the legislation to mean '2013'. There is no gap, instead there is a logical time table. If we assume the bill passes this year and becomes effective Jan 1, 2010 the timeline goes like this:
Jan 1, 2010. Effective date. Health Choices Administration established.
Nomination and confirmation of the Health Choices Commission.
Day 60. Deadline for Presidential appointment of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee.
Jan 1, 2011. Deadline for Advisory Committee to deliver recommendations to the Commissioner
Day 45. Deadline for Commissioner to accept or reject recommendation.
Dav 180. Deadline for recommendations to be established as published Regulations.
July 1, 2011-Dec 31, 2012. Contract negotiations between insurance providers and the Commissioner and establishment of administrative procedures by the public plan and private insurers.
Jan 1, 2013. 'Y 1'. All new insurance plans written must be 'Qualified Health Plans' meeting the requirements of this Act.
This time table seems quite reasonable to me. The only hard date is day one, year one or Jan 1, 2013. Any delays in enactment simply squeeze the time for insurance companies to get plan approval. Nor is there a lot of room to move Y 1 up in time, the Advisory Committee needs some time to work, after they complete their task the Commissioner is bound by certain time requirements established via the general regulatory process, and after the regulations are finalized, gone through public comment, and approved the insurance companies need some time to write new plans to meet those final regulations. People who think Jan 1, 2013 is just too long to wait need to explain in practical terms what part of the timeline they would compress.
In summary. HR3200 does not ban private insurance plans, nor does it even put a moratorium in place. Instead it has rules that keep insurance companies from enrolling new policyholders in non-qualified plans after Jan 1, 2013, the date when qualified plans for individual and group insurance will be available via the new Exchanges. Suggestions to the contrary are a combination of fear-mongering and inadequate reading skills. |
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