In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.
The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was not supposed to exceed $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family. But under a little-noticed ruling, federal officials have granted a one-year grace period to some insurers, allowing them to set higher limits, or no limit at all on some costs, in 2014.
The grace period has been outlined on the Labor Department’s Web site since February, but was obscured in a maze of legal and bureaucratic language that went largely unnoticed. When asked in recent days about the language — which appeared as an answer to one of 137 “frequently asked questions about Affordable Care Act implementation” — department officials confirmed the policy.
In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.
The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was not supposed to exceed $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family. But under a little-noticed ruling, federal officials have granted a one-year grace period to some insurers, allowing them to set higher limits, or no limit at all on some costs, in 2014.
The grace period has been outlined on the Labor Department’s Web site since February, but was obscured in a maze of legal and bureaucratic language that went largely unnoticed. When asked in recent days about the language — which appeared as an answer to one of 137 “frequently asked questions about Affordable Care Act implementation” — department officials confirmed the policy.
The Democrat f*kup's just keep rolling in. Obamacare is going to delay itself out of existence.
Even the $6350 out of pocket expense of Obamacare was a joke to begin with. And that does not include the premiums you pay. How are people supposed to afford that if they get real sick? I had individual insurance for several years and the max out of pocket was more like $3500, even with a pretty high deductible. This is another example where Obamacare made something even worse.
And now they are going to raise the out of pocket, or even eliminate it the first year? That really sucks.
HEARTLESS wrote: :Whistle Waiting for the imbeciles on the left to respond to this. But maybe HuffingPoop hasn't told them how to respond yet.
Why would anyone want to respond when you have already resorted to name calling and insults.....and you all wonder why there are no reasonable discussions.
Folks this ACA is not about you, it is about your money.
And Heartless, you set up Archer to be able to use your post as a reason to follow through with what you said and not provide an opinion.....and there you go.
I just read the rest of that NYT article and it's even worse than I thought. I assumed they were talking about individual insurance which a minority of people get (which I already knew had a $6350 max). But no, they were talking about group insurance through your employer which most people with health insurance get...
Under the policy, many group health plans will be able to maintain separate out-of-pocket limits for benefits in 2014. As a result, a consumer may be required to pay $6,350 for doctors’ services and hospital care, and an additional $6,350 for prescription drugs under a plan administered by a pharmacy benefit manager.
So now you can have a max out of pocket expense for an individual of $12,700 or more in 2014. WOW!
Compare that to your own current max out of pocket expense if you have group insurance. We have an HSA policy which is required to have a high deductible, but the max out of pocket is $2400 (same as the deductible) for an individual. And when we had a PPO, the max out of pocket was under $1500. But it all depends on the company/policy.
So even after 2014, $6350 max out of pocket for group insurance still sounds incredibly high, especially for group coverage. Where are all the savings Obama promised?
You aren't going to find any "savings" in a federal program with a 10 year cost of $2.6 Trillion. Remember what Obama and the Democrats said when they crammed the legislation through in early 2010? The 10 year cost will be $900 Billion, right? And now the cost has ballooned to nearly triple the promised one according to the non-partisan CBO in their cost estimates for the 2014-2023 budget period.
