April 7, 2010
This Week In Health Care Reform
Governors Of Nevada, Arizona Say Their States Will Join Suit Over Healthcare Reform Law.The AP (4/7) reports, "The governors of Arizona and Nevada say their states will join 14 others suing the federal government over healthcare reform." On Tuesday night, "Gov. Jan Brewer (R) announced Arizona was joining the suit." On April 1, Brewer signed a measure giving her "authority to skirt the state's Democratic attorney general, Terry Goddard, who declined to sue on the state's behalf." Also on April 6, "Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) signed an executive order for Nevada to join the multistate challenge to the federal legislation."
The Los Angeles Times (4/7, Powers) reports that "Gibbons announced he would sidestep Atty. Gen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who had declined to join more than a dozen states in challenging the healthcare law's constitutionality, and retain private counsel for the effort." For her part, "Cortez Masto, who agrees with scholars who say a successful legal challenge is a long shot, said Gibbons had no authority to name outside counsel." Gibbons, who "faces a tough GOP primary in June," has recently "amped up his conservative rhetoric," the Times adds.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal (4/7, Spillman) provides some background, explaining that "the lawsuit in United States District Court in the Northern District of Florida alleges that the healthcare law violates the US Constitution with a mandate that citizens buy health insurance or pay fines to the Internal Revenue Service." However, "Gibbons and his supporters say the law contains an unconstitutional mandate to buy insurance or face a fine, and would foist another $600 million in Medicaid and other costs onto the backs of the state's taxpayers."
Timeline
These are among the more than a dozen features of the new health care law that would take effect in 2010 under the measure passed on March 21, 2010.Some of the items that go into effect in the first year include:
Coverage of children: Parents will be allowed to keep their children on their health insurance plan until age 26, unless the child is eligible for coverage through a job. Insurance plans cannot exclude pre-existing medical conditions from coverage for children under age 19, although insurers could still reject those children outright for coverage in the individual market until 2014.
Tax credits for businesses: Businesses with fewer than 25 employees and average wages of less than $50,000 could qualify for a tax credit of up to 50 percent of the cost of their premiums.
Changes to insurance: All existing insurance plans will be barred from imposing lifetime caps on coverage. Restrictions will also be placed on annual limits on coverage. Insurers can no longer cancel insurance retroactively for things other than outright fraud.
New help for some uninsured: The bill would create a temporary high-risk insurance pool for people with medical problems who have been rejected by insurers and have been uninsured at least six months. In 2014, insurers would be barred from rejecting applicants based on health status.
Government oversight: Insurers must report how much they spend on medical care versus administrative costs, a step that later will be followed by tighter government review of premium increases. There is no mention of a Public healthcare option in this version of the bill.
Some of the items that go into effect in 2014 include:
Insurance Mandate: Requirement that all Americans carry insurance or face a government fine. People in their 20s would be given the option of buying a "catastrophic" plan that would have lower premiums. The coverage would largely only kick in after the individual had $6,000 in out of pocket expenses.
Rules requiring insurers to accept all applicants, even those with health problems, and an expansion of state Medicaid programs.
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