Delaware Health Insurance Companies to Take Cuts
An online local news source reported that Delaware Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance program are among the number of health insurance companies in Delaware to receive future cuts under Obama’s comprehensive deficit-reduction plan.
Also affected by the cuts are Medicaid, veteran’s benefits, unemployment insurance, and other programs implemented to benefit low-income Americans. Medicare’s doctors and hospitals will receive payments cuts of two percent.
The congressional supercommittee must come up with $1.2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years, and health care reform is one of the many items considered for cutbacks.
The 12 states, including Delaware that expanded their health insurance programs last year to assist more poor people will all experience cutbacks.
The Medicaid health insurance companies in the 12 participating states that increased their coverage would receive a federal match in growing increments over the decade. The federal supercommittee is now reviewing a bill that would stop the increment percentages at 80% in 2015. The states that had not taken early action to improve their benefits would receive 100% match. Effectively, this would punish the states like Delaware that had initially spent money in improving health insurance for their residents. (www.delawareonline.com)
Delaware Medicaid
Delaware health insurance company Medicaid assists Delaware residents in paying for medical services. Low-income families, seniors, blind and/or disable people are eligible.
Get Low Rates for Delaware Health Insurance
Get a number of health insurance quotes from various sources. The Delaware Health Benefit Exchange has a network of health insurance companies in Delaware that can provide you with competitive rates. Currently, the health insurance network is improving to expand to more Delaware residents, which will mean lower rates for health insurance in the coming years.
Through the exchange, employers can provide better health insurance benefits to their employees and their families. Low- and middle-income families earning an annual household income of up to four times the federal poverty level are eligible to buy from the many health insurance plans available in the health exchange. Federal subsidies will ensure that the monthly premiums are kept low and affordable.
The health exchange network will make it a priority to enforce stricter oversight of health insurance companies.
New reporting features will ensure that health insurance companies are fined or penalized if they do not provide adequate health insurance for their employees, such as minimum coverage or affordable coverage. The government will also collect more information from Delaware insurance companies that are in the Exchange, such as their claims payment policies and practices, financial disclosures, number of denied claims, payments for out-of-network coverage, and more, as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Key Parts about new Health Insurance Requirements in Delaware:
- Establish federal criteria for “qualified health plans”
- Evaluate premium rates and premium increases to determine whether a health insurance plan is allowed into the Exchange
- Require all health insurance plans to implement a quality improvement strategy to improve health outcomes
- Require health plans to not market themselves in a way that discourage high-risk individuals
- Require that health insurance plans include community providers where available that serve low-income, medically underserved people
For more information about the health exchange visit the Delaware Department of health and Human Services. (http://dhss.delaware.gov)
