US Government Launches New Health Care Website

Recently, the Obama administration revealed plans to expand coverage under the federal health care law after the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative division of Congress, discovered that the federal government and many states were “behind schedule” in implementing marketplaces where Americans are meant to be able to buy insurance.

The plans include creating a website and a telephone call center to provide information to consumers are to help prepare for the expected masses who will flock to buy insurance starting October 1.

Secretary of health and human services Kathleen Sebelius says the call center will be operational 24 hours a day and reachable at 800-318-2596. The website, www.healthcare.gov, offers information that promotes the 2010 health care law and explains new insurance choices. Both currently only have general information about coverage which will begin January 1.

“The new Web site and the toll-free number have a simple mission: to make sure every American who needs health coverage has the information they need to make choices that are right for themselves and their families or their businesses,” said Sebelius in a statement.

The Congressional Budget Office expects around seven million people to buy private insurance next year through marketplaces, or exchanges, while nine million people will get coverage through Medicaid. By 2016, the number of uninsured Americans will be reduced by approximately 25 million from the current estimation of 56 million.

The health care website will ask consumers for information about their household incomes in order to figure out if they are eligible for federal subsidies, in the form of tax credits, to help pay premiums.

Sebelius expressed concern about the ability of low-income people in some states to access either Medicaid or subsidies to buy private insurance. However, there is no set timetable for states to expand Medicaid, and states that vetoed the expansion of eligibility this year could reassess next year.

The federal website does recognize that some states aren’t expanding Medicaid and it says that “under the health care law, states have the choice to cover more people.”

More than half of all people without health insurance reside in states that are not intending to expand Medicaid.

Administration representatives said the call center would ultimately have 9,000 customer service representatives handling calls. Consumers can also find information in live Web chats.

Congress Considers Revisions to ACA to Help Small Businesses

Attempts to repeal a tax on insurance companies in the new healthcare reform law are picking up steam in Congress, driven by worries that the fee would affect small businesses especially hard.

The legislation would get rid of the fee on health insurance companies set to go into effect when the law does in January 2014. Referred to as the health insurance tax (HIT tax), the fee will be calculated based on the plans insurers sell right to individuals and companies, known as the fully insured market, but doesn’t include plans established and managed by companies themselves, known as the self-insured market.

The majority of big companies self-insure their workers; as a result, experts forewarn that insurance companies will pass the added costs of collecting the fee to small businesses, which are inclined to buy coverage in the fully insured market.

“It’s pretty straightforward, what’s going to happen, that the tax is going to be passed along,” Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) said in an interview, observing that insurance agents and underwriters have told him as much. “It isn’t really taxing the insurance companies, it’s taxing the people paying the premiums, and in this case, that’s small business owners.”

Matheson is one of several democrats who have pledged their support to the legislation repealing the HIT tax, uniting with almost every Republican in the House. Recently, the bill, H.R. 763, hit the 218-cosponsor mark, which is enough to guarantee its passage in the lower chamber; the tally has since increased to 221.

Sam Graves (R-Mo.) attributed the bill’s momentum to trepidations expressed by small business owners, including many who have testified during hearings before the House Small Business Committee, over which he officiates.

“We keep hearing that from small businesses; that they’re premiums keep going up, keep going up, and now this thing’s coming along, and they’re going to go up even more,” said Graves. “That’s the reason you’re hearing so much about this tax and why you’re seeing such bipartisan efforts to repeal it.”

Those efforts, however, are fighting against the political current on the Hill, where lawmakers have been reluctant to consider proposals to modify the health care law.

This hasn’t discouraged small business advocates from pursuing small fixes, and their efforts are starting to yield signs of progress. Recently, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) introduced legislation that would change the health care law’s definition of full-time employee from 30-hour workers to 40-hour workers, a shift meant to keep labor laws more steady for businesses.

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