Health Insurance Articles
3 Viable Health Reform Challenges In 2012
2012-01-27
The past three years have been focused on providing the country with a unified version of health reform. Washington has produced a program that promises success for anybody in search of an affordable health insurance policy. But the issue has yet to be solidified. Opponents of Obama-care have introduced health reform challenges that could at least stall complete implementation of the plan. Health reform is being hotly contested in several states. And the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to take up health reform sometime this year.
Opponents of the reform package contend it is unconstitutional to require citizens to purchase health insurance or face a fine. How the high court comes down on the issue is almost irrelevant to the fact that medical professionals still need to provide patients with cost-effective procedures. A major problem for hospitals is that they have to accept what Medicare forks over, which covers only about 87 percent of all patient care costs. That number is set to decline further. Medical professionals are not keen about a plan that requires them to recalculate costs so as to remain viable.
Health reform challenges presented by the states center on the prospect that they could lose substantial control of key elements contained in their health insurance laws. They can take up the issue during state legislative sessions. Or, they might decide to wait and see what the Supreme Court says about the issue. It could be that the Court declares the entire health reform measure be struck down; but not likely. Most observers believe the Court will be inclined to drop a couple of the plan's most egregious provisions. These include the health insurance policy purchase mandate and the Medicaid expansion. Although these are only two of several items contained in the overall package, their removal dramatically reduces the overall impact of the health reform measure.
Another major adjunct to health reform is the June 29 call for grants that states can use to underwrite the start of health insurance exchanges. This will be final time states can apply for these grants. Those states not seeking grants will have to either cede exchange control to the feds, or spend their own money to keep them in place.
The 2012 Presidential Election could be the final nail in the coffin for health reform; or not. If President Obama is defeated Republicans will bring to bear every effort possible to dismantle or disrupt implementation of the new law. But if he is re-elected, count on Democrats to press hard on the accelerator and get virtually all facets of health reform moving ahead. How all this affects cost-effective health insurance policies is yet to be determined.
