Health care law, Vikings, stabbings

 

Catching up on impact of new health care law

 This report in the Washington Post last week may be a little eye opening for those who follow news on the federal health care reform legislation.

In my mind, the media covers far more of the controversy over this law than some of the substance.

Here's an example of substance. In effect, the law requires insurance companies to provide rebates. Almost unbelievable when you think about it. That provision was actually provided by Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, because it is more or less modeled after Minnesota Law.

Not all is rosy with this provision, however.

Here's the salient points of the Post story:

" Insurance companies will have to return more than $1 billion this year to consumers and businesses, thanks to a new requirement in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, a report released Thursday concludes."

"That's real money, says Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which analyzed industry filings with state insurance commissioners. The law requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they collect on medical care and quality improvements — or issue rebates to policyholders."

"This is one of the most tangible benefits of the health reform law that consumers will have seen to date," said
"
Levitt, an expert on private health insurance. The nonpartisan foundation is an information clearinghouse on the nation's health care system, and its research is widely cited."

The report comes with a caveat. It lacks data on the nation's most populous state, California, because complete filings there were not available. Nonetheless, the analysis estimates that consumers and businesses in other states will receive rebates of $1.3 billion, in some cases in the form of a discount on next year's premiums.

The insurance industry says consumers should take little comfort from the rebates, because the companies expect premiums to go up overall as a result of new benefits and other requirements of the new law.

"The net of all the requirements will be an increase in costs for consumers," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the main industry trade group.

"The report says the rebates are only one of the ways in which consumers may benefit from tighter scrutiny of the health insurance industry under the federal law, which provides funding for state regulators to monitor the companies more closely. Self-conscious insurers may be hesitating to push state regulators for premium increases as large as they were able to win in the past."

"This `sentinel' effect on premiums has likely produced more savings for consumers and employers than the rebates themselves," the report said.

Fly-speck scrutiny of the insurance industry won't solve the problem of rising health care costs, the report acknowledged, but it "can help to ensure that consumers and businesses get greater value for their premium dollar."

Legislative showdown arrives again.

The scene at the Legislature with a last minute showdown between Gov. Mark Dayton and Republicans in the Legislature seems reminiscent of last year. That seems to be what a lot of the political reporters are saying on Twitter the last few days.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the whole thing breakdown into a "do nothing" year, but I'll be pleasantly surprised if they come to agreement on even one major issue.

I was surprised at Dayton's veto of bipartisan fireworks bill. Not sure what he gained on that one.

Also surprised Republicans did not pass Vikings bill. They apparently had many DFL votes in House and Senate and would have forced Dayton to veto it, which wouldn't have been likely to do.

But waiting, makes it part of Global deal and that may play into Dayton's hand. He gets leverage from something he was already in favor of.

Stabbings in Mankato

Social media on The Free Press website and on our Facebook page has more than the usual number of regular citizens wondering what's going on with these "stabbings."

The stabbing Sunday morning seemed very random, unless something else was operating there. We know the stabbing last week was a domestic dispute related stabbing, apparently.

Interesting that the day we hear about stabbings, the "serial stabber" of Michigan goes to trial. 

From the AP: "Nearly two years later, an Israeli-born drifter goes to trial Tuesday for the first time since Flint's shocking summer of 2010, when as many as 14 people were stabbed in the area, five fatally."

Weird, just weird.