Insurers Warn of Insolvency Over New Push to Repeal Obamacare's Mandated Bail-Outs
This is from
Kate Nocera at BuzzFeed:
WASHINGTON — A major health insurance company is gearing up to lobby hard against repeal of Obamacare’s so-called “risk corridors”— a provision of the law that Republicans deride as an “insurer bailout”— and warning lawmakers that doing so “will ultimately lead to a single-payer system.”
BuzzFeed obtained a memo and talking points from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s CEO Scott Serota that sound alarm bells over momentum for repeal of the health care law’s “risk corridors” — the program that would provide insurance companies with additional funds to cover losses should not enough healthy people enroll in health care plans.
“We are becoming increasingly concerned about momentum that is quickly building among some leading conservatives for elimination of the risk corridor and reinsurance programs,” Serota wrote.
Serota specifically cited several high-profile bills introduced in the House and Senate to repeal the programs and a column by Charles Krauthammer calling for immediate congressional action on the bills.
Serota told members that he would be meeting with Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Speaker John Boehner next week to try to convince them repeal of the risk corridors not be “part of their ACA strategy.”
A spokesman for BCBSA did not immediately return a request for comment. The company is one of the largest systems of insurance companies in the country.
Unions have also asked for an exemption from the plan fee, a tax that employers must pay to go to the reinsurance fund. ...
Full story.
