California health insurers to raise average rates 8% to 14%

By Chad Terhune
Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2012
California’s largest health insurers are raising average rates by about 8% to 14% for hundreds of thousands of consumers with individual coverage, outpacing the costs of overall medical care.
Anthem has proposed raising premiums 9.6% to 13.8% on average, effective May 1 or July 1, for about 700,000 individual policyholders and their family members.
Nonprofit Kaiser Permanente increased premiums 9% on average for nearly 300,000 customers last month.
Blue Shield of California, also a nonprofit, is boosting average rates by 7.9% for 265,000 members and by 8.9% for 56,000 members, both effective March 1.
The cost of goods and services associated with medical care grew just 3.6% over the last 12 months nationally, government figures show. But insurance premiums have kept climbing at a faster pace in California.
Insurers defended their rate hikes, saying they are based on their claims experience with the customers they insure and not just the broader rate of medical inflation. They also say that healthier members dropped out of the individual market as premiums rose and the economy worsened in recent years, leaving behind a group of policyholders who have higher average costs.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0223-health-insurance-rate-hikes-20120223,0,7634380.story

Why should individual health insurance premiums continue to increase at a rate much greater than the cost of goods and services associated with medical care?
One of the most important reasons is that health insurance is now so expensive that many individuals who consider themselves to be healthy are choosing to go without coverage. Those who have health care needs make greater efforts to retain their insurance, thereby concentrating high-cost individuals within the insurance risk pools. This is known as adverse selection.
As the insurance premiums continue to increase, a greater number of healthier individuals will find the premium costs to be intolerable and will drop out, driving premiums up even higher – a phenomenon known as the death spiral of insurance premiums.
One purpose of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to correct such dysfunctions of the private insurance industry. Can we really expect adverse selection with skyrocketing insurance premiums to go away once the Act is fully implemented?
Keep in mind that in the individual market insurers have been using one of the most effective tools to reduce adverse selection. They have refused to cover individuals with greater health care needs, filling their risk pools with healthier individuals – favorable selection. That is now going away. They are going to be required to insure all applicants. That will surely drive up the premiums for the populations expected to be served by the state insurance exchanges.
Under ACA, it is also predicted that 23 million individuals will remain uninsured. A very large percentage of these individuals, who otherwise likely would have participated in the insurance exchanges, will not because of the unaffordable premiums – unaffordable even with the subsidies. Some will remain uninsured based on affordability exemptions in ACA, but some will simply not comply and be subject to penalties which the government may or may not be able to collect. These will be healthier individuals since those with needs will make greater efforts to obtain coverage. More adverse selection.
So once we’ve established the state insurance exchanges, what can we expect? Very high premiums due to adverse selection. A mediocre benefit package based on state small group plans. Very low actuarial values which shift the costs of health care to the very individuals who have greater needs. In other words, UNAFFORDABLE UNDER-INSURANCE will be the new standard in America.
We’re a better country than that. Let’s fix Medicare and provide it for everyone.

By John Schmitt
Center for Economic and Policy Research, February 2012

In 2010, over 38 percent of low-wage workers lacked health insurance from any source, up from 16 percent in 1979.

Coverage problems are particularly severe for Latino workers. Almost 40 percent of all Latino workers (not just low-wage workers) have no health insurance of any form. African American (about 22 percent) and Asian (about 17 percent) workers are also much less likely to have coverage than white workers (about 12 percent).

Affordable Care Act of 2010

For simplicity, if we assume that all adults – workers and non-workers – have the same coverage rate, then under CBO’s projections, workers as a group would have a 5.8 percent non-coverage rate after the ACA. By comparison, in 2010, the actual non-coverage rate for all workers was about 17.7 percent. The CBO gives no guidance about how the coverage improvements for workers would be divided across the wage distribution. If, at the extreme, we assume that all of the uncovered workers are low-wage workers by our definition – that is that all 5.8 percent of workers remaining without coverage are in the bottom quintile – then the non-coverage rate for low-wage workers would be about 29.0 percent. This would be a reduction of one-fourth in the share of low-wage workers without coverage relative to the actual non-coverage rate for low-wage workers in 2010 (38.5 percent). A less extreme assumption about the distribution of non-coverage rates by wage level after the ACA would produce larger gains for low-wage workers. For example, if instead we assume that the top 80 percent of workers have a frictional 3 percent non-coverage rate, then an overall non-coverage rate for workers of 5.8 percent implies a 17.0 percent non-coverage rate for low-wage workers, well short of universal coverage, but a non-coverage rate that is less than half of the current rate.

The ACA will not produce universal coverage for low-wage workers. But, if the ACA is not enacted – due to judicial or legislative action – every indication is that coverage rates will continue their three-decades-long decline.

http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/health-low-wage-2012-02.pdf

Comment: 

By Don McCanne, MD

Conservatives who oppose health care reform often argue that being uninsured is a consequence of the individual’s own personal irresponsibility. Those individuals merely need to shape up and go out and get a job, and then they would have health insurance. The conservatives lose their credibility on this point when the actual data show that 38 percent of low-wage workers, who do go out and get a job, lack health insurance from any source.

Because of such deficiencies in our system reform advocates were able to muster the political support to pass the Affordable Care Act – a half-glass reform. Those who view this as a glass half full celebrate the fact that over half of these uninsured workers will become insured under ACA.

The advocates of reform who view this as a glass half empty bemoan the fact that ACA will still leave about 17 percent of low-wage workers without insurance. The diversionary half full, half empty debate is particularly tragic when you consider that a single payer national health program would have brought us a full glass.

The addendum below is from this same report. It is added because it explains the roots of the decline in coverage rates – an important concept indicating that our battle for health care justice is only a part of the offensive that must take place to expedite social justice throughout the United States.

ADDENDUM

The decline in coverage rates has its roots in two long-standing economic processes. The first is the rising cost of health care, which has squeezed workers’ wages and made it less economical for firms to offer health insurance, especially to low-wage workers. In the absence of reforms to the existing health-care system, these costs – and implicitly the pressure on workers’ after-health-insurance compensation – are projected to continue rising indefinitely.

The other force behind falling coverage rates, especially for low-wage workers, is the decline over the last three decades in the bargaining power of most workers. Beginning in the late 1970s, a set of structural changes in the economy has significantly reduced the bargaining power of workers, especially those at the middle and the bottom of the wage distribution. These structural changes include: a steep decline in unionization; an erosion in the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage; the deregulation of many historically high-wage industries (trucking, airlines, telecommunications, and others); the privatization of many state and local government functions (from school cafeteria workers to public-assistance administrators); the opening up of the U.S. economy to much higher volumes of foreign trade; a sharp rise in the share of immigrant workers, who often lack basic legal rights and operate in an economy that provides few labor protections regardless of citizenship; and a macroeconomic policy environment that has typically maintained the unemployment rate well above levels consistent with full employment. All of these changes have acted to reduce the bargaining power of workers, especially those at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution. As a result, workers as a group have seen their relative (and even absolute) wages fall and the availability and quality of health-insurance and retirement plans decline.

Health-insurance Coverage for Low-wage Workers, 1979-2010 and Beyond

By John Schmitt
Center for Economic and Policy Research, February 2012
In 2010, over 38 percent of low-wage workers lacked health insurance from any source, up from 16 percent in 1979.
Coverage problems are particularly severe for Latino workers. Almost 40 percent of all Latino workers (not just low-wage workers) have no health insurance of any form. African American (about 22 percent) and Asian (about 17 percent) workers are also much less likely to have coverage than white workers (about 12 percent).
Affordable Care Act of 2010
For simplicity, if we assume that all adults – workers and non-workers – have the same coverage rate, then under CBO’s projections, workers as a group would have a 5.8 percent non-coverage rate after the ACA. By comparison, in 2010, the actual non-coverage rate for all workers was about 17.7 percent. The CBO gives no guidance about how the coverage improvements for workers would be divided across the wage distribution. If, at the extreme, we assume that all of the uncovered workers are low-wage workers by our definition – that is that all 5.8 percent of workers remaining without coverage are in the bottom quintile – then the non-coverage rate for low-wage workers would be about 29.0 percent. This would be a reduction of one-fourth in the share of low-wage workers without coverage relative to the actual non-coverage rate for low-wage workers in 2010 (38.5 percent). A less extreme assumption about the distribution of non-coverage rates by wage level after the ACA would produce larger gains for low-wage workers. For example, if instead we assume that the top 80 percent of workers have a frictional 3 percent non-coverage rate, then an overall non-coverage rate for workers of 5.8 percent implies a 17.0 percent non-coverage rate for low-wage workers, well short of universal coverage, but a non-coverage rate that is less than half of the current rate.
The ACA will not produce universal coverage for low-wage workers. But, if the ACA is not enacted – due to judicial or legislative action – every indication is that coverage rates will continue their three-decades-long decline.
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/health-low-wage-2012-02.pdf

Conservatives who oppose health care reform often argue that being uninsured is a consequence of the individual’s own personal irresponsibility. Those individuals merely need to shape up and go out and get a job, and then they would have health insurance. The conservatives lose their credibility on this point when the actual data show that 38 percent of low-wage workers, who do go out and get a job, lack health insurance from any source.
Because of such deficiencies in our system reform advocates were able to muster the political support to pass the Affordable Care Act – a half-glass reform. Those who view this as a glass half full celebrate the fact that over half of these uninsured workers will become insured under ACA.
The advocates of reform who view this as a glass half empty bemoan the fact that ACA will still leave about 17 percent of low-wage workers without insurance. The diversionary half full, half empty debate is particularly tragic when you consider that a single payer national health program would have brought us a full glass.
The addendum below is from this same report. It is added because it explains the roots of the decline in coverage rates – an important concept indicating that our battle for health care justice is only a part of the offensive that must take place to expedite social justice throughout the United States.
ADDENDUM
The decline in coverage rates has its roots in two long-standing economic processes. The first is the rising cost of health care, which has squeezed workers’ wages and made it less economical for firms to offer health insurance, especially to low-wage workers. In the absence of reforms to the existing health-care system, these costs – and implicitly the pressure on workers’ after-health-insurance compensation – are projected to continue rising indefinitely.
The other force behind falling coverage rates, especially for low-wage workers, is the decline over the last three decades in the bargaining power of most workers. Beginning in the late 1970s, a set of structural changes in the economy has significantly reduced the bargaining power of workers, especially those at the middle and the bottom of the wage distribution. These structural changes include: a steep decline in unionization; an erosion in the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage; the deregulation of many historically high-wage industries (trucking, airlines, telecommunications, and others); the privatization of many state and local government functions (from school cafeteria workers to public-assistance administrators); the opening up of the U.S. economy to much higher volumes of foreign trade; a sharp rise in the share of immigrant workers, who often lack basic legal rights and operate in an economy that provides few labor protections regardless of citizenship; and a macroeconomic policy environment that has typically maintained the unemployment rate well above levels consistent with full employment. All of these changes have acted to reduce the bargaining power of workers, especially those at the middle and bottom of the wage distribution. As a result, workers as a group have seen their relative (and even absolute) wages fall and the availability and quality of health-insurance and retirement plans decline.

By Timothy Jost
Health Affairs Blog, February 18, 2012

On December 16, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a bulletin describing the approach that it intended to take to defining the essential health benefits (EHB) that individual (nongroup) and small group plans must cover under the Affordable Care Act.

The EHB bulletin raised a host of questions as to how this approach would work.  On February 17, 2012, HHS issued guidance in the form of an FAQ (frequently asked questions) addressing some of these questions. This post will discuss this FAQ.

Summing up:

The FAQ do go some distance toward clarifying a number of the issues left open by the initial bulletin, in particular how plan flexibility will (and will not) work, that states will not establish a new EHB every year, and that a state’s commercial plan EHB need not apply to Medicaid. The approach selected by HHS will allow states to maintain their coverage mandates (or at least those that apply to the small group market) until 2016, but will preclude the addition of new mandates. It is still hard to imagine how this is all going to work out in practice, however, and more to the point how plan compliance will ever be monitored, given the ability of plans to substitute services within categories. One must wonder whether in the end it might not have been more straightforward simply to come up with a federal menu of services.

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2012/02/18/implementing-health-reform-essential-health-benefits-and-medical-loss-ratios/

CMS – FAQs on essential health benefits:
http://cciio.cms.gov/resources/files/Files2/02172012/ehb-faq-508.pdf

Comment: 

By Don McCanne, MD

Being the fine gentleman he is, Professor Jost politely states, “One must wonder whether in the end it might not have been more straightforward simply to come up with a federal menu of services.”

You don’t have to wonder. Not only should we have a national standard calling for comprehensive benefits for everyone, we also should have simplified the financing system to make it more equitable and much more efficient so that health care would be accessible and affordable for everyone.

Implementing Health Reform: Essential Health Benefits And Medical Loss Ratios

By Timothy Jost
Health Affairs Blog, February 18, 2012
On December 16, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a bulletin describing the approach that it intended to take to defining the essential health benefits (EHB) that individual (nongroup) and small group plans must cover under the Affordable Care Act.
The EHB bulletin raised a host of questions as to how this approach would work.  On February 17, 2012, HHS issued guidance in the form of an FAQ (frequently asked questions) addressing some of these questions. This post will discuss this FAQ.
Summing up:
The FAQ do go some distance toward clarifying a number of the issues left open by the initial bulletin, in particular how plan flexibility will (and will not) work, that states will not establish a new EHB every year, and that a state’s commercial plan EHB need not apply to Medicaid. The approach selected by HHS will allow states to maintain their coverage mandates (or at least those that apply to the small group market) until 2016, but will preclude the addition of new mandates. It is still hard to imagine how this is all going to work out in practice, however, and more to the point how plan compliance will ever be monitored, given the ability of plans to substitute services within categories. One must wonder whether in the end it might not have been more straightforward simply to come up with a federal menu of services.
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2012/02/18/implementing-health-reform-essential-health-benefits-and-medical-loss-ratios/
CMS – FAQs on essential health benefits:
http://cciio.cms.gov/resources/files/Files2/02172012/ehb-faq-508.pdf

Being the fine gentleman he is, Professor Jost politely states, “One must wonder whether in the end it might not have been more straightforward simply to come up with a federal menu of services.”
You don’t have to wonder. Not only should we have a national standard calling for comprehensive benefits for everyone, we also should have simplified the financing system to make it more equitable and much more efficient so that health care would be accessible and affordable for everyone.

Deloitte

Administrative Simplification, part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) signed into law on March 23, 2010, has an overarching goal of streamlining administrative interactions between health plans and providers to improve the patient experience and reduce costs throughout the health care system. Administrative Simplification provisions build on the electronic standards first defined in 1996 with HIPAA 4010 and accelerated in 2009 with passage of HIPAA 5010. While HIPAA addresses the technical structure of transactions, Administrative Simplification addresses how they are used.

Goals:

• Standardized business and operating rules to eliminate variability in transaction implementation, moving the industry toward commoditization of “back-end” transaction processing
• Standardized benefit coverage information to drive consistency of eligibility content, enabling providers to better understand financial liability
• Provision of patient financial liability at or before the point of care, enabling providers to improve the collections process
• Real-time electronic auto-adjudication and claims status, providing for automated reconciliation
• Automation of health plan utilization management and care management decision processes required to support real-time referrals and pre-authorizations

Key dates and scope:

• Wave 1 (January 1, 2013): Automation of point-of-care eligibility and claims status
• Wave 2 (January 1, 2014): Automation of claims payment remittance advice and electronic funds transfer
• Wave 3 (January 1, 2016): Automation of claims and encounters, enrollment/disenrollment, referral authorization, premium payments, and claim attachments

Deloitte – Administrative Simplification:
http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_lshc_AdministrativeSimplification_021612.pdf

CMS – Administrative Simplification Provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) (6 page pdf):
https://www.cms.gov/Affordable-Care-Act/Downloads/Summary%20of%20ACA%20provisions%20for%20Administrative%20Simplification.pdf

Comment:

By Don McCanne, MD

It has long been recognized that profound administrative waste is a unique feature of the U.S. health care system – waste that contributes to our unparalleled, sky-high health care spending. During the reform process, the subject of administrative waste was brought up repeatedly. In response, Congress included in the Affordable Care Act “Sec. 1104 Administrative Simplification.” What is that?

You can read either Sec. 1104 in ACA, or, better, you can read the six page summary by CMS (link above). However, easiest would be to read the excerpts above from the Deloitte report on Administrative Simplification. There is enough there to let you know what it is.

It will not take long for people who understand the administrative advantages of the single payer model to realize that Sec. 1104 has nothing to do with the administrative waste that is a result of our highly fragmented, dysfunctional health care financing infrastructure. Sec. 1104 is primarily revising the information technology systems of the insurers and then requiring the providers to become compliant.

An idea of what Sec. 1104 is really about can be gleaned from Deloitte’s discussion of a revolutionary scenario for administrative simplification:

“This scenario assumes that all stakeholders adopt real-time, end-to-end transaction processing, and that product standardization emerges. Implementation costs would be significant for both health plans and providers. Commercial health plans, in particular, would face a new strategic reality as claims transactions become a commodity, and health plan differentiation shifts to other areas, such as provider network and member experience. Such revolutionary change is possible if existing industry players and/or new entrants look for innovative ways to capitalize on market opportunities to affect health care cost and quality and make meaningful improvements to our health care system.”

Do not be misled when ACA supporters talk about “administrative simplification.” That’s their code language for “commoditization” and “innovative ways to capitalize on market opportunities.”

“Administrative simplification” is another term that they have stolen from the single payer community, and then bastardized it. Don’t let them get away with it. That’s our policy science.

Administrative Simplification: From compliance to competitive advantage

Deloitte
Administrative Simplification, part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) signed into law on March 23, 2010, has an overarching goal of streamlining administrative interactions between health plans and providers to improve the patient experience and reduce costs throughout the health care system. Administrative Simplification provisions build on the electronic standards first defined in 1996 with HIPAA 4010 and accelerated in 2009 with passage of HIPAA 5010. While HIPAA addresses the technical structure of transactions, Administrative Simplification addresses how they are used.
Goals:
• Standardized business and operating rules to eliminate variability in transaction implementation, moving the industry toward commoditization of “back-end” transaction processing
• Standardized benefit coverage information to drive consistency of eligibility content, enabling providers to better understand financial liability
• Provision of patient financial liability at or before the point of care, enabling providers to improve the collections process
• Real-time electronic auto-adjudication and claims status, providing for automated reconciliation
• Automation of health plan utilization management and care management decision processes required to support real-time referrals and pre-authorizations
Key dates and scope:
• Wave 1 (January 1, 2013): Automation of point-of-care eligibility and claims status
• Wave 2 (January 1, 2014): Automation of claims payment remittance advice and electronic funds transfer
• Wave 3 (January 1, 2016): Automation of claims and encounters, enrollment/disenrollment, referral authorization, premium payments, and claim attachments
Deloitte – Administrative Simplification:
http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_lshc_AdministrativeSimplification_021612.pdf
CMS – Administrative Simplification Provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) (6 page pdf):
https://www.cms.gov/Affordable-Care-Act/Downloads/Summary%20of%20ACA%20provisions%20for%20Administrative%20Simplification.pdf

It has long been recognized that profound administrative waste is a unique feature of the U.S. health care system – waste that contributes to our unparalleled, sky-high health care spending. During the reform process, the subject of administrative waste was brought up repeatedly. In response, Congress included in the Affordable Care Act “Sec. 1104 Administrative Simplification.” What is that?
You can read either Sec. 1104 in ACA, or, better, you can read the six page summary by CMS (link above). However, easiest would be to read the excerpts above from the Deloitte report on Administrative Simplification. There is enough there to let you know what it is.
It will not take long for people who understand the administrative advantages of the single payer model to realize that Sec. 1104 has nothing to do with the administrative waste that is a result of our highly fragmented, dysfunctional health care financing infrastructure. Sec. 1104 is primarily revising the information technology systems of the insurers and then requiring the providers to become compliant.
An idea of what Sec. 1104 is really about can be gleaned from Deloitte’s discussion of a revolutionary scenario for administrative simplification:
“This scenario assumes that all stakeholders adopt real-time, end-to-end transaction processing, and that product standardization emerges. Implementation costs would be significant for both health plans and providers. Commercial health plans, in particular, would face a new strategic reality as claims transactions become a commodity, and health plan differentiation shifts to other areas, such as provider network and member experience. Such revolutionary change is possible if existing industry players and/or new entrants look for innovative ways to capitalize on market opportunities to affect health care cost and quality and make meaningful improvements to our health care system.”
Do not be misled when ACA supporters talk about “administrative simplification.” That’s their code language for “commoditization” and “innovative ways to capitalize on market opportunities.”
“Administrative simplification” is another term that they have stolen from the single payer community, and then bastardized it. Don’t let them get away with it. That’s our policy science.