/PRNewswire/ -- Financial reform legislation must be amended to preserve states' ability to protect insurance consumers and bring the bill in line with White House comments yesterday targeting potential industry loopholes in financial reform, said Consumer Watchdog today.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer blogged a list of the '10 Most Wanted Lobbyist Loopholes' in the financial reform bill yesterday. He warned against efforts to exempt the insurance industry from new information collection requirements and notes that the bill does not change states' authority to regulate insurance. However language in the legislation currently under consideration in the Senate would grant the Treasury Department broad new authority to preempt state insurance laws and regulations on behalf of foreign insurance companies.
Pfeiffer wrote: "Insurance is regulated by the states, not the federal government - and this bill doesn't change that. But this bill would give the Treasury Department the ability to collect information from insurance companies so that it can help identify emerging risks before they blow up the financial system - like AIG."
Consumer advocates point to language in the main Senate proposal that would allow federal preemption of state insurance laws and are calling for an amendment to bring the bill in line with White House position on this issue.
"The Senate bill would allow Treasury to roll back strong state insurance protections on behalf of foreign insurance firms. It must be amended to meet White House assurances that state oversight of insurance will not be harmed. Insurance deregulation should not be the end result of the Senate's financial re-regulation package," said Carmen Balber, Washington Director for Consumer Watchdog.
An amendment offered by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and supported by Consumer Watchdog would narrow the broad scope of insurance preemption in the bill to help preserve state insurance regulation and give Congress and the states more input into insurance agreements negotiated by Treasury.
The current Senate provisions would allow Treasury to negotiate new insurance policy through international agreements and behind closed doors, with no input from Congress, state regulators or insurance consumers. Treasury need not consider states' regulatory goals, potential gaps in insurance regulation, or protect insurance consumers in negotiating such agreements. Agreements could then be used to preempt state insurance protections, including capital, solvency and other prudential laws, on behalf of foreign insurers. The states would have no authority to challenge unilateral preemption decisions by Treasury on the merits. Even state laws that treat all insurance companies equally could be subject to preemption. And the current language threatens to subject state insurance laws to preemption under deregulatory constraints contained in existing trade agreements.
"A Senate fix is necessary to preserve states' ability to protect insurance consumers," said Balber.
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Showing posts with label fay. Show all posts
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Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Opinion: Governor Perdue Should Veto HB 1055 and Demand Lawmakers Pass A Clean Version
In order for Governor Perdue to maintain his record of fiscal responsibility, he should veto House Bill 1055. The legislature combined permanent tax cuts with much-needed revenue increases in HB 1055, turning the governor's fiscally responsible proposal into a last minute tax giveaway.
The final version, which passed April 14, adds to the alarming and long-term structural deficit in Georgia. In addition, this bill along with HB 1023 - which has permanent tax cuts of $380 million - could have serious negative implications for Georgia's AAA bond rating.
There is another option- an option that would allow the governor to achieve his original proposals of a temporary hospital fee and updates to user fees. House Bill 307, which contains the temporary hospital provider fee, is still viable. The governor still has an opportunity for the clean bill he desires, if lawmakers revise HB 307 to contain both revenue measures.
Lawmakers of both parties should vote for an amended version of HB 307 that contains two things - the temporary hospital provider fee and updates to user fees. However, lawmakers are not likely to pursue this sensible alternative unless the governor immediately vetoes HB 1055.
Alan Essig
Georgia Budget & Policy Institute
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The final version, which passed April 14, adds to the alarming and long-term structural deficit in Georgia. In addition, this bill along with HB 1023 - which has permanent tax cuts of $380 million - could have serious negative implications for Georgia's AAA bond rating.
There is another option- an option that would allow the governor to achieve his original proposals of a temporary hospital fee and updates to user fees. House Bill 307, which contains the temporary hospital provider fee, is still viable. The governor still has an opportunity for the clean bill he desires, if lawmakers revise HB 307 to contain both revenue measures.
Lawmakers of both parties should vote for an amended version of HB 307 that contains two things - the temporary hospital provider fee and updates to user fees. However, lawmakers are not likely to pursue this sensible alternative unless the governor immediately vetoes HB 1055.
Alan Essig
Georgia Budget & Policy Institute
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Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Libertarians question Republican participation in Tea Parties
Wes Benedict, Executive Director of the Libertarian Party, issued the following statement today:
"Many Libertarians around America are planning to go to Tea Party rallies tomorrow. I also expect lots of Republican activists and politicians to be there. But frankly, I don't think those Republicans belong there. The people participating in these rallies are saying 'There's too much government spending,' but Republicans, decade after decade, have supported massive increases in government spending. During the George W. Bush administration, Republicans in Congress supported spending trillions of dollars on foreign wars, a massive Medicare expansion, and banker bailouts. Republicans doubled the budget and doubled the federal debt. Why can't the Republican Party just admit that it loves big government?
"If I thought there would be many Democrats at these rallies, I'd criticize them too. However, I think it's safe to say that they'll be few and far between.
"Many Libertarians are enthusiastic about the Tea Parties, but many are not. Many Libertarians are concerned that participating causes us to get lumped in with conservatives and Republicans. In our online poll at LP.org, 28% so far say that 'The Tea Parties have become too Republican-flavored.'
"Libertarians are often frustrated when the press characterizes us as 'right-wing' or 'conservative.' Although we certainly support reducing government spending, which most conservatives also claim to support, we differ from right-wingers on many issues: for example, we oppose foreign interventionism, support immigrant-friendly policies, oppose overreaction to terrorism, and oppose the War on Drugs.
"Libertarians are neither left-wing nor right-wing. We're in a different place on the political map, as illustrated by the popular World's Smallest Political Quiz.
"Some of the people in the tax day Tea Party crowds will be right-wingers, and some will be Libertarians. For those Tea Partiers who support Libertarian principles of very limited government spending, government tolerance on social issues, and a non-interventionist foreign policy, the Libertarian Party is ready to welcome them with open arms."
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"Many Libertarians around America are planning to go to Tea Party rallies tomorrow. I also expect lots of Republican activists and politicians to be there. But frankly, I don't think those Republicans belong there. The people participating in these rallies are saying 'There's too much government spending,' but Republicans, decade after decade, have supported massive increases in government spending. During the George W. Bush administration, Republicans in Congress supported spending trillions of dollars on foreign wars, a massive Medicare expansion, and banker bailouts. Republicans doubled the budget and doubled the federal debt. Why can't the Republican Party just admit that it loves big government?
"If I thought there would be many Democrats at these rallies, I'd criticize them too. However, I think it's safe to say that they'll be few and far between.
"Many Libertarians are enthusiastic about the Tea Parties, but many are not. Many Libertarians are concerned that participating causes us to get lumped in with conservatives and Republicans. In our online poll at LP.org, 28% so far say that 'The Tea Parties have become too Republican-flavored.'
"Libertarians are often frustrated when the press characterizes us as 'right-wing' or 'conservative.' Although we certainly support reducing government spending, which most conservatives also claim to support, we differ from right-wingers on many issues: for example, we oppose foreign interventionism, support immigrant-friendly policies, oppose overreaction to terrorism, and oppose the War on Drugs.
"Libertarians are neither left-wing nor right-wing. We're in a different place on the political map, as illustrated by the popular World's Smallest Political Quiz.
"Some of the people in the tax day Tea Party crowds will be right-wingers, and some will be Libertarians. For those Tea Partiers who support Libertarian principles of very limited government spending, government tolerance on social issues, and a non-interventionist foreign policy, the Libertarian Party is ready to welcome them with open arms."
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Thursday, April 8, 2010
Obama, Congress: Fix 10 Health Care Loopholes and Repel Insurer Attempts to Undermine New Consumer Protections, Says Consumer Watchdog
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Consumer Watchdog called on President Obama and Congress in a letter sent today to fix ten problem areas in the new federal health reform law that, if not addressed, will be exploited by health insurers and drug companies looking to charge more for less health care.
Download the letter here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/HealthReformLoopholes.pdf
In the letter sent today, Consumer Watchdog wrote:
"The enactment of broad health reform into law is, as you know, only the start of providing health coverage to all Americans at a fair price. Not only must the White House and Congress close loopholes in the newly enacted law, but the White House must also strongly repel efforts already under way by insurers and other corporate interests to undermine Department of Health and Human Services regulations while they are being written. . . .
"Key questions left unanswered in the legislation--including the scope of health benefits that insurers must provide under the new law--will be addressed over the next months and years by federal regulators. Congress must stand ready to continuously clarify and strengthen the law against efforts to nullify its broad and progressive intent. . . .
"Consumers will brook no excuses for failure by the White House or Congress to strongly defend newly won consumer protections, fill dangerous loopholes in the new law, and ward off an onslaught of well-funded lobbyists."
The ten loopholes and problem areas are (see letter at link above for more details):
* Lack of Insurer Rate Regulation. The federal law fails to adequately limit what insurers can charge American families and business owners for coverage, even though tens of millions of Americans are required to purchase private health insurance policies. Without the strongest possible review and prior approval of health insurance rates insurers will be able to raise rates nearly without limit and use rate-setting as a vehicle for continuing to cherry-pick the healthiest customers.
* Weakening of benefits. Pre-emption of stronger state benefit requirements by so-called Nationwide and Multi-state plans will threaten the survivability of the state Exchanges and eliminate key health and consumer protections in many states. This is a "race to the bottom" provision that may allow insurers to sell highly profitable bare-bones policies under the guise of cutting costs. Consumers who fall seriously ill would suffer the consequences.
* States Rights to Innovate. Under the current law, states must wait until 2017 for waivers from the federal government to use federal Medicaid, Medicare, tax subsidies and other funds to support state alternatives to the private insurance market, whether that be by adopting a state single-payer model or a state "public option." If the federal government will require all Americans to purchase private insurance by 2014 or face tax fines, then by 2014 the federal government must also give states the right to use their share of federal funds to support alternate, state-based health reform.
* Medicare Advantage pushback. Private, for-profit Medicare Advantage systems will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on glossy marketing to attract a higher percentage of healthier seniors into such plans. The result could be a lobbying coup that prevents cuts in Medicare Advantage overpayments, cripples efforts to stabilize Medicare costs and may even push traditional Medicare into an economic death spiral.
* Pharmaceutical price spiral. Pharmaceutical companies' large and unwarranted recent price increases on heavily used drugs have already eliminated any cost savings from an industry promise to "reduce" Medicare drug prices by $8 billion a year. Further Congressional action is needed to allow direct bargaining for drugs by Medicare, which is the only way to steadily curb drug prices.
* Continued rescission. The federal law allows insurers to define the terms of future coverage rescissions when customers fall seriously ill in the fine print of their policies. The law limits rescission of health policies to instances of fraud or "intentional misrepresentation," however no new regulatory oversight of rescission is provided to ensure that omissions or errors are indeed fraudulent or intentional, rather than innocent mistakes.
* No legal accountability for insurers that deny care. Patients who have health coverage paid for in part or full by employers cannot hold insurers legally accountable for denying medically necessary treatments.
* Definition of medical expenses. Consumer Watchdog has called on the Obama Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") to probe insurance giant WellPoint Inc. in light of a message to its investors describing how WellPoint would simply re-label administrative costs as "medical care" in response to the new health reform law. HHS must narrowly define what constitutes medical care to block gaming of the new medical loss ratio requirement by health insurers.
* Inadequate Federal Fallback. Consumer Watchdog advocates for frontline state enforcement with strong federal fallback if states fail to act. States are the local cops on the beat and can respond faster to local threats and with greater knowledge of the local market. But there should be pathways for federal regulators to become fully aware of the failure of state fraud enforcement through public intervenor groups and reporting requirements that tip federal regulators to local inaction.
* Sick kids. The ink was hardly dry on the health reform law when the insurance industry started saying that no matter what Congress thought it passed and no matter what President Obama said, they did not have provide coverage to sick children right away. The main private insurer lobbying group, Americans Health Insurance Plans, has since said it will not fight the new coverage of previously excluded children and conditions, but the provision must also be clearly stated in regulations implementing the law.
Consumer Watchdog is a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Santa Monica, CA. Find us on the web at: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/
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Download the letter here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/HealthReformLoopholes.pdf
In the letter sent today, Consumer Watchdog wrote:
"The enactment of broad health reform into law is, as you know, only the start of providing health coverage to all Americans at a fair price. Not only must the White House and Congress close loopholes in the newly enacted law, but the White House must also strongly repel efforts already under way by insurers and other corporate interests to undermine Department of Health and Human Services regulations while they are being written. . . .
"Key questions left unanswered in the legislation--including the scope of health benefits that insurers must provide under the new law--will be addressed over the next months and years by federal regulators. Congress must stand ready to continuously clarify and strengthen the law against efforts to nullify its broad and progressive intent. . . .
"Consumers will brook no excuses for failure by the White House or Congress to strongly defend newly won consumer protections, fill dangerous loopholes in the new law, and ward off an onslaught of well-funded lobbyists."
The ten loopholes and problem areas are (see letter at link above for more details):
* Lack of Insurer Rate Regulation. The federal law fails to adequately limit what insurers can charge American families and business owners for coverage, even though tens of millions of Americans are required to purchase private health insurance policies. Without the strongest possible review and prior approval of health insurance rates insurers will be able to raise rates nearly without limit and use rate-setting as a vehicle for continuing to cherry-pick the healthiest customers.
* Weakening of benefits. Pre-emption of stronger state benefit requirements by so-called Nationwide and Multi-state plans will threaten the survivability of the state Exchanges and eliminate key health and consumer protections in many states. This is a "race to the bottom" provision that may allow insurers to sell highly profitable bare-bones policies under the guise of cutting costs. Consumers who fall seriously ill would suffer the consequences.
* States Rights to Innovate. Under the current law, states must wait until 2017 for waivers from the federal government to use federal Medicaid, Medicare, tax subsidies and other funds to support state alternatives to the private insurance market, whether that be by adopting a state single-payer model or a state "public option." If the federal government will require all Americans to purchase private insurance by 2014 or face tax fines, then by 2014 the federal government must also give states the right to use their share of federal funds to support alternate, state-based health reform.
* Medicare Advantage pushback. Private, for-profit Medicare Advantage systems will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on glossy marketing to attract a higher percentage of healthier seniors into such plans. The result could be a lobbying coup that prevents cuts in Medicare Advantage overpayments, cripples efforts to stabilize Medicare costs and may even push traditional Medicare into an economic death spiral.
* Pharmaceutical price spiral. Pharmaceutical companies' large and unwarranted recent price increases on heavily used drugs have already eliminated any cost savings from an industry promise to "reduce" Medicare drug prices by $8 billion a year. Further Congressional action is needed to allow direct bargaining for drugs by Medicare, which is the only way to steadily curb drug prices.
* Continued rescission. The federal law allows insurers to define the terms of future coverage rescissions when customers fall seriously ill in the fine print of their policies. The law limits rescission of health policies to instances of fraud or "intentional misrepresentation," however no new regulatory oversight of rescission is provided to ensure that omissions or errors are indeed fraudulent or intentional, rather than innocent mistakes.
* No legal accountability for insurers that deny care. Patients who have health coverage paid for in part or full by employers cannot hold insurers legally accountable for denying medically necessary treatments.
* Definition of medical expenses. Consumer Watchdog has called on the Obama Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") to probe insurance giant WellPoint Inc. in light of a message to its investors describing how WellPoint would simply re-label administrative costs as "medical care" in response to the new health reform law. HHS must narrowly define what constitutes medical care to block gaming of the new medical loss ratio requirement by health insurers.
* Inadequate Federal Fallback. Consumer Watchdog advocates for frontline state enforcement with strong federal fallback if states fail to act. States are the local cops on the beat and can respond faster to local threats and with greater knowledge of the local market. But there should be pathways for federal regulators to become fully aware of the failure of state fraud enforcement through public intervenor groups and reporting requirements that tip federal regulators to local inaction.
* Sick kids. The ink was hardly dry on the health reform law when the insurance industry started saying that no matter what Congress thought it passed and no matter what President Obama said, they did not have provide coverage to sick children right away. The main private insurer lobbying group, Americans Health Insurance Plans, has since said it will not fight the new coverage of previously excluded children and conditions, but the provision must also be clearly stated in regulations implementing the law.
Consumer Watchdog is a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Santa Monica, CA. Find us on the web at: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/
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Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Libertarian poll: What is Obama trying to distract us from?
America’s third largest party is asking Americans to vote on what they think the White House’s ongoing war with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is intended to distract attention from, Libertarian National Committee (LNC) Communications Director Donny Ferguson announced Wednesday.
The LNC has posted a poll at www.lp.org asking Americans to cast their vote for one of five harmful Obama policies the White House hopes their spat with Limbaugh will distract attention from.
“Every time Obama announces higher taxes on unemployment, the market tanks. Economic research shows his spending plan causes long-term economic damage. He’s keeping 50,000 troops in Iraq and breaking his promise to end earmarks,” said Ferguson. “Now, with polls showing more and more Americans oppose his agenda, Barack Obama needs a distraction. He gets it by having his operatives pick a fight with a colorful radio personality.”
“Instead of solving our economic problems by reducing spending during a recession and granting tax relief to job creators, Obama has instead chosen to kick mud at a radio entertainer,” said Ferguson. “That’s not change or hope. It’s a tired old political trick pulled out when you’re making problems worse.”
“Libertarians may not always agree with Limbaugh, but you don’t have to agree with him to see the White House is latching onto his celebrity hoping Americans will pay attention to that and not the economic damage Obama is causing,” said Ferguson.
“While the White House is busying whining about an entertainer and Republicans are busy inserting their wasteful earmarks into the budget, Libertarians are busy cutting spending and creating jobs in their private businesses. It’s clear the Libertarian Party is the only party with an agenda for renewal, not waste or petty spats,” said Ferguson.
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The LNC has posted a poll at www.lp.org asking Americans to cast their vote for one of five harmful Obama policies the White House hopes their spat with Limbaugh will distract attention from.
“Every time Obama announces higher taxes on unemployment, the market tanks. Economic research shows his spending plan causes long-term economic damage. He’s keeping 50,000 troops in Iraq and breaking his promise to end earmarks,” said Ferguson. “Now, with polls showing more and more Americans oppose his agenda, Barack Obama needs a distraction. He gets it by having his operatives pick a fight with a colorful radio personality.”
“Instead of solving our economic problems by reducing spending during a recession and granting tax relief to job creators, Obama has instead chosen to kick mud at a radio entertainer,” said Ferguson. “That’s not change or hope. It’s a tired old political trick pulled out when you’re making problems worse.”
“Libertarians may not always agree with Limbaugh, but you don’t have to agree with him to see the White House is latching onto his celebrity hoping Americans will pay attention to that and not the economic damage Obama is causing,” said Ferguson.
“While the White House is busying whining about an entertainer and Republicans are busy inserting their wasteful earmarks into the budget, Libertarians are busy cutting spending and creating jobs in their private businesses. It’s clear the Libertarian Party is the only party with an agenda for renewal, not waste or petty spats,” said Ferguson.
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