As House members reviewed a federal spending bill this week, a GOP representative from Georgia proposed cutting off funds that are used to implement new medical loss ratio provisions.
The amendment to the Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, otherwise known as H.R. 1, would stop the flow of federal money going to the Department of Health and Human Services to use for Section 2718 of the Public Health Service Act — medical loss ratio requirements.
Rep. Tom Price of Georgia offered up the amendment — no. 409 out of 583 proposed by House members.
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The National Association of Health Underwriters commended the effort to halt the current MLR requirement, as the group says the mandate is having a "devastating financial impact on the country's approximately half-million licensed professional health insurance agents and brokers and their employees and clients–the millions of employers and individual Americans who purchase private health insurance coverage each year."
"MLR regulation as it currently stands is causing disruption in all insurance markets," NAHU CEO Janet Trautwein said in a statement. "Insurers are being forced to eliminate or reduce key business areas that help consumers and contain costs, like fraud prevention and claims management. The new requirements also limit the ability of insurers to offer low-cost plan alternatives, and over time, they will reduce the number of insurers willing to write health insurance in the individual and small-group markets. This will leave consumers underserved, reduce competition and cause countless insured individuals to lose their health coverage.
"MLR requirements also significantly and negatively impact access to health insurance agents and brokers. Agents are seeing as much as a 50 percent reduction in business income. This means that fewer agents and brokers will be able to afford to stay in business, and many will have to begin reducing services to their clients and cutting jobs, at the very time our economy is the weakest and health insurance purchasers need help the most."
NAHU ended its Capitol Conference this week on a promise from another lawmaker — Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., — that a bill to exempt broker and agent commissions from MLR calculation will be coming in the next few weeks.
"I believe we will have bipartisan support for this measure when it is introduced," NAHU's Jessica Waltman, senior vice president, government affairs, told Benefits Selling. "Representative Rob Andrews (D-NJ) who was one of the six co-authors of the original House Democratic health reform bill, publicly endorsed the concept at the [Capitol Conference], and we have had lots of other interest from members of congress on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers."
Update: The House of Representatives approved H.R. 1, the Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, on Feb. 19 by a 235-189 margin. Rep. Tom Price's amendment to prohibit funds from being used to carry out MLR restricitons was approved by a 241-185 vote.
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