Forbes - More Solid Proof That Obamacare Is Working

May 24, 2011, 3:47 PM

Business
More Solid Proof That Obamacare Is Working
May. 23 2011 - 1:17 pm | 34,282 views | 8 recommendations | 94 comments
By RICK UNGAR
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/05/23/more-solid-proof-that-obamacare-is-working/?partner=yahootix

Recent data provided by the nation’s largest health insurance companies reveals that a provision of the Affordable Care Act – or Obamacare – is bringing big numbers of the uninsured into the health care insurance system.

And they are precisely the uninsured that we want– the young people who tend not to get sick.

The provision of the law that permits young adults under 26, long the largest uninsured demographic in the country, to remain on their parents’ health insurance program resulted in at least 600,000 newly insured Americans during the first quarter of 2011.

Wellpoint, the nation’s largest publicly traded health insurer with some 34 million customers, reports adding 280,000 new members in the first three months of 2011.

Add in the results of some of the other large health insurers including Aetna, who added just short of 100,000 newly insured to their customer base, Kaiser Permanente’s additional 90,000, and Highmark’s 72,000 new customers, and we begin to sense our health insurance pools are filling up with some badly needed young blood.

The Health & Human Services Department had estimated that the changes in the law would result in about 1.2 million new enrollees in 2011. However, according to Aaron Smith, the executive director of a Washington based non-profit that advocates for the young, it now looks as if that number will be exceeded.

This is very good news – particularly for those in the individual and small group markets that tend not to ‘self-insure’ as the larger corporations tend to do.

It is also very good news for those of us who write a large check every month for our health coverage.

For starters, every one of the young immortals we add to the rolls of the insured is one less young adult who will turn to the emergency room to fix a broken leg and then find themselves unable to pay the bill – leaving it to the rest of us to pay the tab.

And it gets better.

Because the under 26 crowd tends not to get sick, adding them to the insurance pools helps bring the very balance that was intended by the new law. The more healthy people available to pay for those in the pool who are ill (translation- the older people), the better the system works and the lower our premium charges should go.

One cannot help but notice that the health insurance companies turned in record profits for the first quarter of 2011 due, according the insurance companies, to fewer people seeking medical treatment.

When you add into their customer base a large number of people who are paying premiums but are less likely to get sick (the young adult demographic), this would be the expected result.

The question now is whether we allow the health insurance companies to hold onto the benefits of this reform by keeping the extra money they are pocketing or force them to hold the line on premiums as a result of their good fortune.

I’m betting that the policyholders, with the help of both state and federal governments, will win this battle.

Meanwhile, things continue to improve on the small business front where business owners are being heavily incentivized to offer health care benefits to employees.

As I wrote in January, there has been a significant uptick in small businesses taking advantage of the tax benefits offered by the ACA to provide health insurance to employees where they previously did not do so.

According to a Kaiser survey, there has been a 46% uptick in businesses with less than 10 employees offering health benefits as compared to last year.

That is a big number.

Further improving the outlook, the IRS has, in the past month, issued guidelines for small businesses which very much bolster the tax credits offered. Included in those guidelines are provisions that clarify that the tax credit will not be reduced by a state health care tax credit or subsidy (except in limited circumstances to prevent abuse of the credit); that small businesses can receive the credit not only for traditional health insurance coverage but also for add-on dental, vision, and other limited-scope coverage; and detailed guidance on how a small business can determine whether it is eligible and how large a credit it will receive.

Health care reform is working, folks – and we have yet to get to the really big benefits which kick in come 2014.

Now that we are seeing some decidedly positive results, I am reminded of the GOP criticism that was leveled at the health care reform effort back when the issue was on the front burner of the national consciousness.

Once we get past the August 2009 era of the townhall meetings where the Republicans were pitching the false “death panel” narrative to great effect, we see that there are two primary challenges lodged against the law- the cuts to Medicare and the health insurance mandates.

Today, the GOP is pursuing the Ryan budget plan that would destroy Medicare as we know it, turning it into a voucher program that has no chance of keeping up with the rising costs of medical care and leaving seniors to face a future of inadequate and unavailable health care.

It is no secret that polling reveals that Americans are very much not in favor of Ryan’s plan.

So much is this the case, the health care issue that played such a large role in handing the House of Representatives over to the GOP last November, is now the very same issue that has become the focal point of the special election in New York’s 26th Congressional District where polling shows Democrat Kathy Hochul is leading Republican Jane Corwin in what has long been a safe GOP seat.

The reason Hochul may emerge victorious?

The GOP’s anti-Medicare plan.

The irony is exquisite.

As for the health insurance mandates, reviewing the field of the major GOP presidential contenders, some interesting data begins to emerge.

Newt Gingrich – for mandated health insurance before he was against it (although he may have already switched positions again this morning.)

Jon Huntsman – for mandated health insurance before he was against it. Indeed, mandates were a vital part of the health care reform Huntsman pushed as Governor of Utah before the GOP majority in the state legislature put the brakes on the idea.

Mitt Romney- as the true father of Obamacare, clearly he was for mandates before he was against them.

Only Tim Pawlenty appears to be in the clear on the topic.

The time has arrived for even the most critical to take another look at health care reform. Facts and figures don’t lie – if accurately presented.

And while the full jury won’t be in for a few more years, maybe the time has come for average Americans more interested in what is best for their country rather than grinding a political axe, to reconsider their views.

I think you’ll like what you see.

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Forbes - More Solid Proof That Obamacare Is Working

Then why is Medicare going broke? Why are we still in

I don't see anything in this article relating to lower costs

well duh, you have to read it with your eyes closed.***

one would think that evidence based practice and pay

Based on this article it doesn't sound like the people who

Let me know when they turn 26.

I'm sure they aren't on it for free, a family of 3 pays more

not always***

If they hand out many more exemptions, it will be pretty

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