About Those Health Insurance Rebates
This is Robert Laszweski, writing at The Health Care Blog:
The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 3.4 million people in the individual market will receive $426 million in consumer rebates because of the Affordable Care Act’s new MLR rules. In the small group market 4.9 million enrollees will see $377 million in rebates, and 7.5 million people will get $540 million in the large group market.
Wow!
But take a closer look at the report. Only 19% of those in the large group market will be getting a rebate and that rebate will average $72.31 per person. In the small group market 28% of those enrolled in these plans will get a rebate averaging $76.37. And, in the individual market 31% of consumers who have these plans will get a rebate averaging $126.81.
I’d like to see a calculation for how much all health insurance policyholders have had to pay in higher agent/broker fees because of the MLR rules compared to the small percentage that will receive a rebate.
The Affordable Care Act saves consumers $1.3 billion!!!!
And, health insurance costs keep going up just like they did last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.
Will the next step be to limit agent/broker fees?
Good post.
People like the idea of getting a rebate. But, what they may not realize is that this will not save them money. Rather, they will have fewer choices when purchasing individual coverage.