GOP Trying To "Immunize" Insurance Companies From Health Reform

If you've read this blog for very long then you know that I wasn't thrilled with the health care reform package passed by Congress and signed by the president. That's because I didn't think the reform went far enough. I thought (and still think) the reform package should have offered a government public option (like Medicare) instead of leaving most Americans in the greedy and uncaring hands of the private insurance companies. But having said that, I will admit that the reforms that were enacted were needed and will make health insurance at least a little bit better for nearly all Americans.

But the Republicans have hated and fought against the moderate reform proposed and passed by Democrats since the day it was first introduced as a bill. I'm not sure why they opposed the reform package -- whether they just don't care that millions of Americans are denied the best health care because they don't have insurance, or they've just been paid off by the giant insurance companies. It has to be one of the two, because the reforms passed were changes that were actually proposed by Republicans during the Clinton administration (when Democrats were wanting much more far-reaching changes).

Regardless of the reason, the Republicans have been demagoguing the issue and have actually been trying to repeal the modest reforms that were passed. Their efforts to repeal the reform have been rebuffed by the Senate so far, and even if they could get it past the Senate it is assured that the president would veto any repeal. So since an outright repeal has no chance of success, the Republicans have now decided to try something else to get what they want -- a sort of "back door" approach.

When the reform was passed it contained a "grandfather" clause in it. This clause was to help the businesses and the insurance companies to ease into the reforms without being hit with all of them at once. It said if a company had an insurance contract they were happy with, it could be continued until either benefits were cut or premiums raised. When either of those things happened, the new contracted insurance policies must then conform to all the changes made in the reform. This was sensible.

The Republicans have decided to use this grandfather clause to "immunize" the private insurance companies from having to ever comply with the changes in the health care reform. They are introducing a bill that would continue the grandfather clause indefinitely -- even if premiums are raised or benefits are cut. That means an insurance company could delay far into the future instituting the changes by simply getting a company to continue the policy. This would probably be accomplished by cutting benefits for employees, since raising premiums would likely make a company look elsewhere for coverage. The changes the insurance companies could avoid include:

* Extending coverage for an employee's children until they reach the age of 26.

* Covering people with pre-existing conditions.

* Stop setting lifetime limits for insurance coverage.

* End annual limits of insurance coverage.

* End rescissions of coverage (dropping coverage when a person contracts an expensive illness).

* Abide by the medical loss ratio provision (which says a company must spend 80-85% of premiums on actual healthcare).

This silly bill makes me lean toward the "paid off by the insurance companies" excuse for Republicans hating health care reform. There is only one provision in the health care reform law that many people oppose -- the mandated buying of health insurance by those who can afford it. And this law would do nothing about that. All of the above changes are approved of by a significant majority of the American people. Allowing the insurance companies to indefinitely dodge instituting these changes helps no one but the insurance companies.

This is just one more example telling us that Republicans care only for the giant corporations, and are perfectly willing to toss American citizens under the bus to protect massive corporate profits.