Another ObamaCare Rate Shock on the Way

 

IBDEditorials.com

Health Care: The administration issued new rules last week to spare President Obama more political damage from his phony "keep your doctor" promise. But in so doing, they've set in motion another ObamaCare rate shock.

Soon after enrolling in ObamaCare, many people discovered the high cost of believing Obama's promises. Not only were millions required to change plans, but many learned that their "new-and-improved" ObamaCare plans forced them to give up their doctors and hospitals, too.

Turns out that insurers — desperate to keep premiums as low as they could in the face of ObamaCare's costly benefit mandates, taxes and regulations — set up narrow, sometimes extremely narrow, provider networks to hold down costs.

For those with serious health problems, this could mean disruptions in care, lack of access to doctors and hospitals, and potentially huge out-of-pocket costs if they ended up out of network.

Yet even with these narrow networks, premiums still climbed by double digits in most markets thanks to ObamaCare.

As this reality sank in, public anger mounted. So in its latest attempt to mend a self-inflicted wound, the administration issued a new set of ObamaCare standards designed to force insurance companies to expand their provider networks.

In its letter to insurers, HHS said that, starting next year, the agency will require all plans to offer "reasonable access" to doctors and hospitals. The letter didn't define what "reasonable access" means, but any plan that fails to meet this test won't be available in the federal ObamaCare exchange.

HHS will also require insurers to expand access to "essential community providers," boosting it to 30% next year from 20% this year.

And regulators will be looking at other cost-cutting features — deductibles, co-pays, pre-authorization requirements, etc. — to decide whether any of them are "discriminatory" because they might discourage the sick from signing up.

In other words, HHS plans to pressure insurers both to restrict their use of cost-sharing tools and expand their provider networks.