Lost comment July 16, 2013 10:37 AM Subscribe
I recall a discussion on the blue about the ACA recently wherein someone stated there will be (or may be) a federally managed insurance option available on the exchange in all states. It was portrayed as a back door public, not-for-profit option. I can't find the post now. Anyone have it bookmarked or recall the details of who will be managing the plan and what it will consist of?
I remember this pretty clearly because I was very interested in buying it, as I travel across the country for long periods and insurance companies really don't like that at all.
I have tried all the usual suspects in order to google my way to an answer but haven't met with success.
From memory, there was some conjecture into an announcement with further details to follow in October (2012). Naturally, further details never surfaced, but I seem to remember that the outlined plan was to allow the postal workers office to put their health insurance on the state health exchange. This is naturally a win win for everybody as more people in the risk pool results in lower costs and increased bargaining power...but I digress.
A few google results showed that the post office hasn't yet obtained the power to do any of this, that it was proposed and it is still pending, or something.
Hopefully there will be something that comes of it when the insurance markets go online in 2014.
But I'm biased. I'm still upset I can't buy into Medicare. It's just such a logical solution.
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 7:29 PM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
I have tried all the usual suspects in order to google my way to an answer but haven't met with success.
From memory, there was some conjecture into an announcement with further details to follow in October (2012). Naturally, further details never surfaced, but I seem to remember that the outlined plan was to allow the postal workers office to put their health insurance on the state health exchange. This is naturally a win win for everybody as more people in the risk pool results in lower costs and increased bargaining power...but I digress.
A few google results showed that the post office hasn't yet obtained the power to do any of this, that it was proposed and it is still pending, or something.
Hopefully there will be something that comes of it when the insurance markets go online in 2014.
But I'm biased. I'm still upset I can't buy into Medicare. It's just such a logical solution.
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 7:29 PM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]
I don't know the specific comment in question, but I believe the provision you're talking about is health insurance exchanges.
posted by chrchr at 12:00 AM on July 17, 2013
posted by chrchr at 12:00 AM on July 17, 2013
I'm not aware of any federally managed insurance option being offered on the exchanges. The closest thing I can think of is that there was federal funding made available for the development of health care coops, which only about 17 states got before the feds had to stop awarding the grants because of the sequester. I know the one here in Illinois will operate as a not-for-profit, though it could be different in the other states that are developing them.
posted by deliciae at 12:19 AM on July 17, 2013
posted by deliciae at 12:19 AM on July 17, 2013
Yeah, I think you confused a federally managed exchange with the insurance itself.
If a state doesn't set up and run an exchange, then the ACA provides that the feds will come in and do so. Since a number of red states are refusing to set up the exchanges as a weird sort of protest at the ACA, it means that the federal government will end up doing it in those states. There's been talk that if this happens on a wide scale, it will represent another incremental involvement in the federal government in health care and place the government in a pretty good position to implement a public insurance option.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:13 AM on July 17, 2013 [3 favorites]
If a state doesn't set up and run an exchange, then the ACA provides that the feds will come in and do so. Since a number of red states are refusing to set up the exchanges as a weird sort of protest at the ACA, it means that the federal government will end up doing it in those states. There's been talk that if this happens on a wide scale, it will represent another incremental involvement in the federal government in health care and place the government in a pretty good position to implement a public insurance option.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:13 AM on July 17, 2013 [3 favorites]
There definitely was a comment about a specific plan(s) that will be offered on the exchange and managed by the feds.
Whether or not the comment was accurate is... well, something else. I think it was within the past month, no more than three months ago.
posted by jsturgill at 9:14 AM on July 17, 2013
Whether or not the comment was accurate is... well, something else. I think it was within the past month, no more than three months ago.
posted by jsturgill at 9:14 AM on July 17, 2013
There was a link posted in one of the threads here on metafilter that basically said President Obama was working on putting a federal insurance plan, I believe through the post office, into the health insurance exchange, at an undefined point in the future. It caught my eye at the time, because it said that it would be valid for all 50 states. Obviously, that didn't happen.
I agree it was conjecture rather than fact, as the link hypothesized that maybe this was the first step towards a government entity that might some day grow into a single payer system, but that is roughly what the external link said.
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 9:14 AM on July 17, 2013
I agree it was conjecture rather than fact, as the link hypothesized that maybe this was the first step towards a government entity that might some day grow into a single payer system, but that is roughly what the external link said.
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 9:14 AM on July 17, 2013
Do you mean the Multi-State Plan Program to be established by the Office of Personnel Management, which administers federal employee health benefits?
posted by grouse at 12:47 PM on July 17, 2013
posted by grouse at 12:47 PM on July 17, 2013
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posted by medusa at 7:27 PM on July 16, 2013