The future of health exchanges and high risk pools may hang on the Supreme Court’s ruling

Health Care Reform

Health Care Reform

News outlets have been reporting that if the health insurance law is overturned, massive programs it promised may end.

Health insurance programs such as the state health exchanges and the pre-existing condition pools may find that their existence was short lived should the United States Supreme Court overturn the healthcare law that was put into place by the Obama administration in 2010.

For example, the temporary PCIP government program may be the last of the protection for high risk individuals.

That program was put into place in order to help individuals with a pre-existing medical condition to find affordable coverage until 2014, when it would be banned for any health insurance company to continue the current common practice of denying those people coverage or charging them astronomically high premiums.

According to the Obama administration, there are approximately 60,000 Americans who are currently benefiting from coverage through PCIP. The Supreme Court is expected to make its ruling regarding whether or not the healthcare reforms implemented by the Obama administration can be considered to be constitutional, within the next few weeks. If it is overturned, those people may no longer be able to enjoy their current level of coverage.

It has also been pointed out that industry investors will be impacted if the Supreme Court overturns the law.

This could lead to serious ramifications to the economy of the industry, as many companies throughout that had been preparing for the changes to the system will suddenly need to take an entirely new tack and plan for a completely different future.

Modern Healthcare published an article called “Proposed Rule Outlines Data Needed For Defining Essential Benefits” which discussed a proposed rule for the HHS and the way that data is collected in order to be able to discover how plans and benefits will be impacted depending on the ruling that is made.

The Wall Street Journal has also pointed out in “Big Changes In College Health Plans” that colleges will need to pay close attention, as they had been planning to drop student health insurance plans next year due to the potential for significantly increased premiums due to federal regulations demanding improved coverage.

 

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