Health Care Reform Update.

Health care reform was passed earlier this year and is having some unintended or intended consequences. I know health care reform might not be that be of a deal to some people, but these recent developments are a portent of things to come and eventually we all will be old and will be in need of quality health care. I believe that eventually that the government will be the only one of consequence providing medical care here in America and this will "fundamentally transform" one sixth of our economy, change the dynamics of our Country, and have a slow and creeping effect on the character of the American people that will make them look to the government to meet one of their vital needs. Other countries have a government run health care system and I am sure that things are all that bad in those countries. The service might be lower quality and there might be longer waiting times, but it won't be that big of a deal.

It looks like some health insurance companies are dropping child-only coverage due to the provision that insurance companies can't deny coverage to a child for a preexisting condition,

Some of the country’s most prominent health insurance companies have decided to stop offering new child-only plans, rather than comply with rules in the new health-care law that will require such plans to start accepting children with preexisting medical conditions after Sept. 23.

Why would anyone put their child on a child-only policy and pay for it when they know that as soon as their child becomes ill they can simply enroll them into an insurance policy because they can't be denied? How are insurance companies supposed to pay for this? When this situation occurs, the insurance companies becomes providers of welfare and not insurance. The insurance companies can not continue to do business under these conditions. Who will?

College insurance plans might have to increase their premiums,

The two key areas of concern were whether student plans would be considered to meet the “minimum essential coverage” standard under the individual mandate, and whether the plans would be classified as individual or group plans in the insurance market. If the plans didn’t satisfy the minimum coverage standard, plans would need to improve their offerings (and become more expensive) to qualify, or students who opted for them would have to pay a tax required of anyone who declines the individual mandate. Plans classified as “'individual' are more expensive than group plans because the risk is not pooled.[...]ACE has yet to receive an official response from either the White House or the Department of Health and Human Services, other than a letter expressing their willingness to continue discussions on the association’s concerns.

And insurance companies in Connecticut will be increasing their premiums to comply with the new requirements under the new health care law,

The state's largest health insurer was granted rate hikes Friday that will be well over 20 percent for some plans, drawing sharp criticism from the attorney general.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut requested a wide range of premium increases, which will take effect Oct. 1, to cover the costs of new benefits required by federal health reform. Higher prices mostly affect new members shopping for a health plan on the individual market rather than people who have group plans through an employer or some other organization.

It looks like some insurance companies are just exiting from the insurance business altogether,

The Principal Financial Group announced on Thursday that it planned to stop selling health insurance, another sign of upheaval emerging among insurers as the new federal health law starts to take effect[...] Other aspects of the health care regulations are worrying some state insurance commissioners, who fear that insurers are going to stop selling policies in some areas of coverage.[...] More insurers are likely to follow Principal’s lead, especially as they try to meet the new rules that require plans to spend at least 80 cents of every dollar they collect in premiums on the welfare of their customers.[...] Mr. Laszewski is worried that the ensuing concentration is likely to lead to higher prices because large players will no longer face the competition from the smaller plans. “It’s just the UnitedHealthcare full employment act,” he said.

The last part of the quote above points to the fact that this new health care law might be leading to a state created monopoly or at the least will create much less competition in the industry. This is all by design on the part of those who wrote the new health care law, see the video at the end.

McDonald's is considering dropping coverage to 30,000 of its employees because of the recent health care reform,

McDonald's Corp. has notified federal regulators its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers isn't compatible with a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, raising speculation about the fate of those employees' health coverage. Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn't loosen a requirement for "mini-med" plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans. The requirement concerns the percentage of premiums that must be spent on benefits.

It will really suck to be an uneducated or poor person in the coming decades in our Country as they will be the ones hardest hit form all of this "change". I might be incorrect, but it seems like a lot of companies are not hiring full time employees or they are cutting their full time employees to part time so that they don't have to provide them with benefits. It will be cheaper for most companies to not provide health care to their employees as the tax that will be imposed on them under the new health care law will be less than actually providing their employees with coverage.

And the recent health care law will increase the shortage of doctors,

The U.S. healthcare reform law will worsen a shortage of physicians as millions of newly insured patients seek care, the Association of American Medical Colleges said on Thursday.

It also looks like the Department of Health and Human Services is threatening private health insurance companies according to this opinion piece,

First, there are the heavy-handed statements coming out of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Two weeks ago, HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a letter to the nation’s insurers with a plainly stated threat: Either the insurers conform to the political agenda of the administration and describe the reasons for premium increases in terms acceptable to the Democratic party, or they will be shut out entirely from the government-managed insurance marketplace. What could possibly have provoked a cabinet secretary to launch such an indiscriminate broadside against an entire industry? Simple: A handful of insurers had dared to utter the truth, noting that the new law has imposed costly insurance mandates that will raise premiums for everyone. For that offense, the federal government has essentially threatened to put the truth-telling insurers out of business. And what’s truly astonishing, and telling, is that the new law almost certainly gives the HHS secretary the power to do so if she really wants to.

Some people might look at these developments and say that the health care reform has had a lot of unintended consequences or that insurance companies or just plain evil. But keeping in mind the fact that the main supporters of this reform has stated that they wants a single-payer system and that there will have to be a transition period of about 15-20 years and part of the transition will include a public option, these developments seem to make a lot of sense. The public won't immediately support a single-payer system but if the insurance companies are made to look like the bad guy by being forced to deny or drop coverage to its customers because of basic laws of economics that won't be discussed here; then this will help create the support from the public for the government to do something to deal with the problem that was created by the government in the first place. It does sound like a very good plan to go about achieving the goals of those stated in the video above, I wish I could come up with plans that are half as smart as these. The fact is that the essence or fundamental aspects of health care reform will not be repealed by any party. How can any politician allow insurance companies to deny coverage to a child with a preexisting condition or take away the people's new right that was conferred upon them by the government? So the fact is, as I see it, that one day there will be no more evil insurance companies, or they will be insignificant, and we all will have high quality and free health care provided for by our loving government.