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... Last Thursday, a National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) task force recommended that the NAIC endorse the Access to Professional Health Insurance Advisors Act (HR 1206), which would take broker and agent commissions out of the medical loss ratio (MLR) calculation created by the Affordable Care Act. The ACA requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of their premium revenue on health care claims and quality improvement costs. Beginning this year, insurers who miss the target are required to rebate the difference to policy ...

... before the Christmas holiday, Farm Bureau President Garrett Hawkins advocated for legislation in 2024 that would allow the Farm Bureau to sell health plans that are “like traditional insurance…” He describes those plans as having a “few key differences…” that allow them to have ... One of the “key differences” that he is talking about is that these “plans” can tell farmers and family members with pre-existing health conditions that they won’t cover them. So, for example, if a farmer is diagnosed with colon cancer in the first six months of coverage, ... but that would no longer apply to these plans. This includes protections not only for individuals diagnosed with cancer but for mental health care coverage, maternity coverage, autism, and the list goes on. As the granddaughter of a farmer, who is proud that we’ve been able to keep the ...

... and Commerce Committee   On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up and approved H.R. 1206, the Access to Professional Health Insurance Advisors Act of 2011. The legislation would remove the commissions of health insurance agents from the medical loss ratio (MLR), a calculation that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires insurers to show the proportion of premiums they spend on providing health care to patients as opposed to salaries and ...

... prevention and early detection programs, Medicare and Medicaid, and insurance subsidies for individuals and families under the Affordable Care Act. Work on the FY12 Labor-HHS appropriations bill will likely pick up in the House when Congress returns in September.  The bill will ... the House floor the week of September 18 th .  Senate action will likely trail the House by a few weeks.   HHS Adopts New Women's Preventive Health Care Recommendations   This week the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it will adopt the recommendations recently submitted by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) on women's ...