Word: spent
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...David is Evergreen Chapel, a nondenominational body currently led by Chaplain Lieut. Carey Cash. Each week, regardless of whether the President is on-site, Evergreen Chapel holds Christian services open to the nearly 400 military personnel and staff at Camp David, as well as their families. The Bush family spent eight straight Christmases at Camp David, in large part because of the retreat's privacy, and were regular attenders of the chapel's candlelight service on Christmas Eve. Other Presidents and their families have opted to stay in Washington for the holiday. The Clintons traditionally went to midnight mass...
...that most Americans purchase insurance - would run rampant, jacking up prices and padding profits and executive salaries. But Rockefeller and several other Democratic senators also had their eye on a different way to keep insurer profit margins within reason: setting strict minimums on what proportion of premiums must be spent on health care...
...Insurance companies can do whatever they want with premiums unfortunately, so the medical loss ratio is a superb instrument," Rockefeller said in an interview with TIME, adding that customers have a right to know how much of their premiums are spent on administrative costs like marketing, salaries and profit. "If you buy a gallon of milk and you end up with half a gallon, you're not really happy about that. But in that case, you can take it back to the store and get mad." (See the top 10 health care reform players...
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...
...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 unintentional consequence might be insurers overpaying for some health services to keep their MLR averages high. All of this means the efficacy of MLR regulation - like so much of what's contained within the House and Senate health reform...