WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama unveiled a package of consumer benefits Tuesday to build support for his health-care overhaul and warned Republicans about trying to repeal his landmark law. “We’re not going back,” said the president.
Obama knocked the insurance industry but praised insurers for meeting some requirements of the law ahead of schedule. The legislation “is not meant to punish insurance companies,” he said, but will bring them millions of new customers. Obama said his administration would aggressively confront what he called unreasonable premium increases.
“There are genuine cost drivers that are not caused by insurance companies,” Obama said. “But what is also true is we’ve got to make sure that this new law is not being used as an excuse to simply drive up costs.”
The White House rolled out new regulations that explain how several provisions of the law will be carried out, including a ban on insurers denying coverage to children in poor health.
Obama told an invited audience at the White House that Republicans who seek to reverse such protections do so at their own political peril. “We’re not going back,” the president said. “I refuse to go back. And so do countless Americans.”
The White House called it a “patients’ bill of rights,” but Republicans dismissed Tuesday’s announcement as a public-relations effort.
“This shouldn’t be called a health-care bill of rights, but a bill of goods that the American people aren’t buying,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “There isn’t enough slick advertising, politically crafted events or artful sales pitches that will change that.”
The $1 trillion, 10-year overhaul legislation’s major benefit - expansion of coverage to some 32 million uninsured - doesn’t come until 2014.
The safeguards announced Tuesday apply to most health plans renewing on or after Sept. 23. They include:
Guaranteed coverage for children with pre-existing health problems. The administration estimates that about 540,000 children with health problems are uninsured, and some 51,000 are likely to gain coverage. It’s still unclear whether families will be able to afford the premiums. The law does not limit what insurers can charge.
A ban on lifetime coverage limits. More than 100 million people are enrolled in plans that currently impose such limits, the White House said.
Phasing out annual coverage limits. Starting this year, plans can set annual limits no lower than $750,000. Such limits rise to $2 million in 2012 and will be completely prohibited in 2014.
Prohibiting insurers from canceling the policies of people who get sick. Unintentional mistakes on application forms cannot be used to revoke a policy. Most health-insurance companies have already complied voluntarily.
Guaranteed choice of primary-care doctors and pediatricians from a plan’s network. No referral needed for women to see an obstetrics-gynecology specialist. No previous approval needed to seek emergency care out-of network.
The new rules apply to most health plans, except in cases where they are “grandfathered” under the law.
Starting in 2014, adults with a history of medical problems will be guaranteed health insurance as well. In the meantime, the administration is setting up a special high-risk pool starting July 1 to provide low cost coverage to uninsured people with health problems. But a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office confirms previous estimates that the $5 billion allocated to the program won’t be enough to meet needs.
Before his speech, Obama and other senior administration officials met privately with state insurance commissioners, and CEOs of major insurance companies amid concerns over continued premium increases.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the talks with insurance industry representatives at the White House centered on the need to get medical providers and drug companies involved in cost-control discussions.
“We need to be in this together ... the underlying cost drivers are certainly not all isolated with insurance companies,” she said. “Having said that, there’s no question that we’re seeing rate increases that so far exceed the cost of medical inflation in some instances that they’re difficult to justify.” Information for this article was contributed from Indianapolis by Tom Murphy of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 06/23/2010