Health Insurance Reform In Conclusion

After more than a year of often contentious political debate, historic health insurance
reform legislation was passed and signed into law last week. But the
ink was not yet dry on the bill before 14 states filed a lawsuit
challenging the new law, and everyone else began poring over provisions
to determine exactly what it would mean for them. Time magazine
concluded that health insurance
premiums will continue to rise under the new law, and with more
predictability. In a BusinessWeek magazine interview last week, Aetna
Chairman and CEO Ron Williams agreed that premiums will continue to
rise because health care costs were not adequately addressed. He added,
however, that the nation still can get back to meaningfully taking on
the drivers of rising health care costs in the next several years
during the new law's implementation period. As stated in an Aetna news
release issued last week, Aetna stands ready to help if that happens.

Federal

The
President's signature on health care reform legislation March 23 and
his signing on March 30 of the Reconciliation measure to "fix" the
March 23 version starts the clock ticking for implementation of the
biggest change to American health care in 45 years. Irrespective of
policy position or political persuasion, two truths emerge from its
passage: 1) Health care reform is now President Obama's health care
reform, and he and the Democratic Party will have to defend it going
forward for many years to come; and 2) The entire country (starting
with health plans and insurers) needs to fasten its seat belt tightly
and get ready for the most massive regulatory and implementation
process since Medicare.

For the past three months, the House
and Senate have been unable to agree on either a long-term "doc fix"
(to permanently eliminate the 21 percent cut to Medicare doctors in
2010) or a COBRA fix (to provide a full 2010 calendar year extension of
the right for certain COBRA recipients to receive a 65 percent
government subsidy). The impasse has resulted in month-to-month
extensions as neither Chamber has been able to get the other to agree
to its version of a permanent extension. Just before the two-week
recess (March 25 to April 12) the House once again did its part and
passed an extension through April for each item. The Senate refused to
play ping-pong this time and went home for recess without agreeing to
the same month-long extension. This could prove both costly and
administratively messy. CMS has already ordered a temporary halt on
processing claims for the first days in April hoping to stave off the
problems associated with letting a 21 percent cut go into place early
in April only to retroactively unwind the cut within weeks. Whether
Congress can figure out what to do and then do the right thing is at
best a 50-50 proposition

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