Florida health insurance news sees individual policy consumers receiving $113 million in insurer rebates

Florida health insurance

Florida health insurance refunds part of health care reform

Florida-health-insuranceResidents of Florida who have individual health policies (not subsidized by employers) will be happy to hear the latest insurance news that will include a rebate estimated to be worth $143 to $949 (depending on the coverage and policy) starting in August, as a result of the federal healthcare reforms.

The rebates will affect approximately 157,000 families and individuals.

Furthermore, another $65 million in rebates is also being prepared to provide rebates to workers from among 352,000 small businesses. These insurance statistics are estimates based on an analysis of the April reports of the 15 biggest Florida health insurance companies.

The majority of businesses with more than 50 employees will not qualify for the health coverage rebates. According to industry experts, not many of the insurance companies for organizations of that size will be required to owe those discounts, and many of the businesses are self-insured so that this healthcare law does not apply to them.

The Florida Public Interest Research Group advocacy organization’s healthcare policy coordinator, Richard Polangin, stated that…

 “This is important for consumers,” and that “They already pay extremely high prices for health insurance.”

In order to obtain the rebates, policyholders aren’t required to do anything. It is the insurance companies that are obligated to notify those individuals of the discounts by August 1, 2012, if they can expect to receive a refund. Those individuals will then receive their refund payments that month, if applicable.

The refunds will either be applied to the premiums for the next year’s coverage, or will be returned to the customer in the form of a check. The small businesses receiving the refunds will be sent to the companies, themselves, which must commit, in writing, to distribute the funds among the applicable employees, or to apply those funds to further benefit the workers’ health coverage.

The rebates are the latest insurance news resulting from the healthcare reforms by the Obama administration.

This particular regulation went into effect last year and stated that insurance companies must spend a minimum of 80 percent of the income from premiums on actual medical cost. The remainder could be used for profits and administrative expenses. Should they use more than the allowable 20 percent for administration and profits, the difference must be refunded to policyholders.


Article: Florida health insurance news sees individual policy consumers receiving $113 million in insurer rebates
Article Source: Live Insurance News
Author: Alicia Williams


Florida health insurance news sees individual policy consumers receiving $113 million in insurer rebates


 

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