Word: carefully
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Earlier this year Rockefeller - who is chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee - launched an investigation into MLRs. According to Rockefeller, in 2008, insurers in the individual market spent an average of 74% of premiums on health care, compared with 80% in the small group market and 84% in the large group market; some insurers cited in the final report spent as little as 66% of premiums on actual care. CIGNA, one of the insurance companies cited, says investigators erred in calculating the company's medical loss ratios. Where the report said CIGNA spent 87% of premiums...
...setting a new national MLR floor is not the end of the equation. The CBO, in its report on the regulations, said insurers might react to new thresholds by "cutting back on efforts to restrain benefit costs through care management." Translation: Anything that doesn't count as "medical costs" may be on the chopping block, including exorbitant executive salaries but also programs to keep patients healthy. There is also a fear among health policy experts that some insurers could raise premiums in reaction - higher premiums means more money spent on health care, but also more left over for profits. Another...
Read "Understanding the Health Care Debate: Your Indispensable Guide...
George W. Bush used to insist that he didn't read polls, and on the off chance that he did, he didn't care anyway. "I don't give a darn," the former President famously said early this year just before the end of his term, when CNN's Larry King pointed to his anemic approval ratings...
...Health-care reform has become a burden. Something has gone wrong on the long trail to historic health reform. For one thing, Americans no longer support what is going on. The recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found that 44% of the country believe it would be better not to pass any plan at all, while 41% said it would be better to pass the plan. As recently as October, the same poll showed those numbers practically reversed. One reason is a misalignment of priorities. The health care debate has, ironically, intensified American contentment with their current health coverage. The July...