Obamacare News of the Day

National Journal: Administration Backs Down on Medicare Cuts The Agency overseeing the system says it's turning a proposed cut into a slight payment increase for Medicare Advantage plans [Democrats joined by many Republicans and the insurance industry pressured the Administration into reversing MA cuts as prescribed by Obamacare. These cuts were a part of the "savings" imagined by Obamacare]

• The federal agency that runs Medicare has reversed at least some proposed cuts to private Medicare Advantage plans—the second time in two years that insurers have persuaded the agency to abandon cuts. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday it would turn a roughly 2 percent cut first proposed in February into a 0.4 percent payment increase for Medicare Advantage plans. Insurers, however, have said the proposed cut was much bigger—closer to 6 percent. They argued that payment reductions would cause plans to either cut benefits or raise premiums.

GoUpstate.com (Spartanburg, SC): Newly insured patients find they can't use local hospitals or doctors

• Shortly after Mary West bought health insurance, she realized there was a problem. For years, the Spartanburg resident was treated by a doctor at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. Now that she has a shiny new health insurance card in her pocket, she will have to find somewhere else to receive care. “I have to find a different health care provider,” she said. “It's frustrating.”
• West, who struggles with diabetes and high blood pressure, was a client at AccessHealth, a non-profit that links lower income patients to affordable options. Through AccessHealth, she was seeing a primary care doctor at Spartanburg Regional. Then, she bought an insurance plan via healthcare.gov…
• “As people have gotten insurance and tried to use their insurance, they are understanding that they can no longer go where they used to go. It's not fair at all, and people who buy insurance don't know this going in. Many enrollees in exchange plans already face barriers to care, and now they are finding that locating a new provider for themselves or their families to be yet another barrier.”
• [RELATED] NJ.com: Obamacare eclipses low-cost NJ health plan for middle-class kids
  • While the federal government was trumpeting the benefits of Obamacare to boost enrollment earlier this year, about 1,800 families in New Jersey were receiving letters telling them their children would be losing their health coverage last week.
  • The Affordable Care Act — the federal law that mandates everyone have insurance — effectively killed FamilyCare Advantage, a low-cost option for kids in New Jersey created six years ago for parents who earned too much to qualify for Medicaid and other subsidized programs but too little to buy on a policy on their own. The state program was the first of its kind in the nation.
  • Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey was the only insurance carrier that agreed to offer the FamilyCare Advantage plan, which covered most medical, dental and vision needs for the relative bargain of $144 a month per child. But it didn’t offer mental health treatment and several other services Obamacare requires, and that was the fatal flaw, said Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), who sponsored the law creating the program.

Forbes (Dr. Scott Gottlieb): Health Plan Premiums Are Skyrocketing According To New Survey Of 148 Insurance Brokers, With Delaware Up 100%, California 53%, Florida 37%, Pennsylvania 28%

• Health insurance premiums are showing the sharpest increases perhaps ever according to a survey of brokers who sell coverage in the individual and small group market. Morgan Stanley’s healthcare analysts conducted the proprietary survey of 148 brokers. The April survey shows the largest acceleration in small and individual group rates in any of the 12 prior quarterly periods when it has been conducted.
• The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and 12% in the individual market. Some state show increases 10 to 50 times that amount. The analysts conclude that the “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.”
• The analysts conducting the survey attribute the rate increases largely to a combination of four factors set in motion by Obamacare:  Commercial underwriting restrictions, the age bands that don’t allow insurers to vary premiums between young and old beneficiaries based on the actual costs of providing the coverage, the new excise taxes being levied on insurance plans, and new benefit designs.
• [RELATED] Forbes: Here's How Much Health Plan Premiums Spiked Over The Last Four Years Of Obamacare's Rollout

Washington Examiner: How much does Obamacare actually cost?

• When CBO analysts most recently looked at the gross cost of expanding Medicaid and giving subsidies to individuals to purchase insurance through the new exchanges -- the bulk of the law's spending -- they came up with slightly more than $2 trillion for 2015 through 2024.
• After deducting some offsets from the law — such as penalty payments from employers and individuals due to insurance mandates — CBO estimated the net cost at nearly $1.5 trillion. The CBO hasn't done a standalone deficit analysis on Obamacare since 2012, but at that time, its analysts estimated the law would reduce deficits by $109 billion, once all tax increases, cuts to Medicare and other savings are taken into account.
• When referring to the “cost” of Obamacare, the fair thing to do is cite the $2 trillion figure — and no, that isn’t just because it’s a higher number. The gross figure represents how much the federal government will have to spend on expanding coverage through Obamacare, at least according to the CBO. If the government weren’t spending $2 trillion on insurance coverage, that’s money that could be going to reducing the deficit, spending more on infrastructure or a host of other theoretical policies.
• [RELATED] Forbes: Arkansas' 'Private Option' Price Tag Is Rising By The Month
  • Any Governor or legislator still considering a “Private Option” style ObamaCare Medicaid expansion in their state should take an extra-long look, as the Razorback state’s version is turning out to be hugely expensive. While the “Private Option” plans are required to look almost exactly the same as Old Medicaid from an enrollee’s perspective, the plan does have one big difference from a straight “traditional” ObamaCare Medicaid expansion: state taxpayers are on the hook for all cost overruns. The trend of enrollment in the first few months project a cost overrun of tens of millions of dollars for 2014 alone, with potential overruns growing larger in the future.