Bureaucrats Working More Hours On Medical Insurance Reform
Posted on Sat, Jun 19, 2010
Since the passage of medical insurance reform, employees at the Department of Health and Human Services and at the Labor Department have been putting in more hours of work than in recent memory. The task at hand is to put provisions in place that reflect the 2000 pages of reform.
On Mondays and Thursdays, the director of the White House Office of Health Reform meets with officials to make decisions regarding the translations of the law's mandates, and prep the wording before going into fine print.
On the table this year is the task of mailing checks in the amount of $250 to seniors. This is meant to cover the gap in Medicare's drug benefit. Another provision to accomplish this year is giving tax breaks to small businesses that insure their workers. Also, legislation must be placed this year that will prevent medical insurance companies from declining children due to medical pre-existing conditions. Another stipulation is that medical insurance companies will be required to allow parents keep their adult dependents on their policies up to the age of 26. That's a lot of work to get done in just 6 months left of the year.
Every 7 to 10 days, the Obama Administration is publishing a positive thing about the medical insurance reform legislation, with the intention of making it favorable to a certain constituency. The administration's involvement shows the reform law's potential impression on President Obama's presidential term. In addition, it also shows how much the reform law allows important decisions to be left to the administration.
Medical insurance reform law has to make sure that insurers spend most of the money that's collected from premiums on medical bills or improving someone's well-being. However, what kinds of activities will be suitable? Another question that needs to be addressed is to determine what an "unreasonable" rate increase is.
The terminology of this language can severely impact medical care reform. The people that have been chosen to regulate the laws have had run-ins with insurance companies in the past, so medical insurance companies are nervous.