Obamacare Rules Begin Rolling Out
Posted at 11 a.m. on Nov. 21, 2012
The Hill reports that the Department of Health and Human Services — charged with implementing much of President Obama’s health care reform law — “issued new rules Tuesday that require insurance companies to cover people with preexisting medical conditions.”
“HHS also began putting in place new limits on how much insurers can vary their premiums — for example, allowing them to charge older patients only three times more than younger customers. The law prohibits insurers from varying premiums at all based on some factors, including gender.”
“The regulations also bar insurers from charging sick customers a higher premium. Everyone who buys insurance through a newly created exchange, rather than getting it through an employer, will be combined into one large risk pool, meaning insurance companies can spread out their risks more broadly.”
“Another regulation released Tuesday begins to flesh out the definition of ‘essential benefits’ — the services that individual insurance plans will have to cover, beginning in 2014. The ACA lays out 10 categories of essential benefits, and HHS had previously said it intends to let states fill in the details, rather than setting federal standards.”
Sarah Kliff has more details.
