Posted by
Dennis Pemberton on Thursday, August 13, 2009 6:48:51 AM
In the next few posts, I'll put forth what I see as the worst parts of HR 2300, the health care "reform" bill which will make everything all better. Today, we look at Section 116(a), which states:
- A qualified health benefits plan shall meet a medical loss ratio as defined by the Commissioner. For any plan year in which the qualified health benefits plan does not meet such medical loss ratio, QHBP offering entity shall provide in a manner specified by the Commissioner for rebates to enrollees of payment sufficient to meet such loss ratio.
Section 1173(b)(4) states that an acceptable loss ratio can't be less that .85. What does all this mean? It means that some bureaucrat in Washington gets to determine how much profit an insurance company can make. If the insurance doesn’t lose a certain amount of money (at least 85% of premiums), they have to give the overage back. The government controls the market by stating what kind of profits you can make. We can see how this works in Florida, where insurers just pull out. On a national level, one can assume they will just go out of business.