- The largest rebates will go to consumers and employers in Texas ($186 million) and Florida ($149 million)
- Insurance companies must notify policyholders, and the rebates are due by Aug. 1
- Advocates say the study shows Obama’s health law is strengthening the health care system
- Critics call that wishful thinking
More than 3 million health insurance policyholders and thousands of employers will share $1.3 billion in rebates this year, thanks to President Barack Obama’s health care law, a nonpartisan research group said on Thursday.
The rebates should average $127 for the people who get them, and Democrats are hoping they’ll send an election-year message that Obama’s much-criticized health care overhaul is starting to pay dividends for consumers. Critics of the law call that wishful thinking.
The law requires insurance companies to spend at least 80 per cent of the premiums they collect on medical care and quality improvement or return the difference to consumers and employers.
Although many large employer plans already meet that standard, it’s the first time the government has imposed such a requirement on the entire health insurance industry.
‘This is one of the most tangible benefits of the health reform law that consumers will have seen to date,’ said Larry Levitt, an expert on private insurance with the Kaiser Family Foundation, which analyzed industry filings with state health insurance commissioners to produce its report.
Still, with employer coverage averaging about $5,400 a year for an individual, $15,100 for a family, $127 isn’t a whole lot of money. It amounts to 2 percent of an individual plan, and a little less than 1 percent of the family premium.
Health industry consultant Robert Laszewski said the projected rebates are so small as to count mainly as a ‘rounding error’ that most consumers won’t even notice.
And the insurance industry says consumers should take little comfort from the rebates because premiums are likely to go up overall as a result of new benefits and other requirements of the law.
‘The net of all the requirements will be an increase in costs for consumers,’ said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main industry trade group.
‘Given that health care costs are inherently unpredictable, it’s not surprising that some plans will be paying rebates to policyholders in certain markets,’ Zirkelbach added.
