Recently Kaiser Health News http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/ * noted: “Low-income consumers struggling to pay their premiums may soon be able to get help from their local hospital or United Way.
Some hospitals in New York, Florida and Wisconsin are exploring ways to help individuals and families pay their share of the costs of government-subsidized policies purchased though the health law’s marketplaces – at least partly to guarantee the hospitals get paid when the consumers seek care.
But the hospitals’ efforts have set up a conflict with insurers, who worry that premium assistance programs will skew their enrollee pools by expanding the number of sicker people who need more services.
“Entities acting in their [own] financial interest” could drive up costs for everyone and discourage healthier people from buying coverage, insurers wrote recently to the Obama administration.
Insurers are asking the federal government, which regulates the health insurance marketplaces, to restrict the practice.
To date, regulators have sent mixed messages about whether they will permit such programs—even as providers across the country are moving to set them up.
* to read the full KHN article “Hospitals Seek To Help Consumers With Obamacare Premiums” by Julie Appleby, highlight and click on open hyperlink http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2014/August/14/Hospitals–Seek-To-Help-Consumers-With-Obamacare-Premiums.aspx?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+First+Edition&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=13794140&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_fQA7MRUY8gG-6lO12fQO3KYo56PHc43We9r1zptXFp86V94I9QdsD91jh5CxaQzCk8Iib68cDBkSCCVuEeiMF62pmYYecmB1xb_FhbiwBZ-Z3dc0&_hsmi=13794140
Doctor, Did You Wash Your Hands? ™ provides information to consumers on understanding, managing and navigating health care options.
Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H., is Clinical Professor, Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Adjunct Professor, Baruch College ( C.U.N.Y.), Rutgers School of Public Health, and Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration
This blog shares general information about understanding and navigating the health care system. For specific medical advice about your own problems, issues and options talk to your personal physician.