Health insurance
regulations are changing thanks to new U.S. laws.
New laws passed concerning health insurance reform in 2010 placed more regulation on the health-care industry and is meant to improve the availability of insurance to Americans over time. While there are many advantages to this increased regulation of health insurance--like making insurance more affordable and available to those who did not have it before, as well as eliminating the denial of insurance to those with preexisting conditions--the regulation also has some disadvantages that will be a source of concern for some people as the new laws begin to go into effect.
Medicare Benefits Versus Inflation
Medicare is the government-run health insurance plan for those over 65 years of age. The new insurance regulations help senior citizens in some ways, including free preventive screenings and the repair of a gap in coverage that can cost seniors thousands in out-of-pocket spending.
However, the Congressional Budget Office stated that the new regulations only allow for around 2 percent increase in benefits to offset rising costs each year. The previous laws allowed for a 4 percent increase each year. Some analysts believe that seniors in the future will begin to see a significant shortage of covered benefits because of this new regulation, according to CNN Health.
The Cost
Perhaps the biggest complaint by health-care reform opponents concerns the cost of the changes. According to The Huffington Post, the Congressional Budget Office says the cost of the new health insurance regulations will be $940 billion over the decade between 2010 and 2020.
While the White House claims that other cuts in spending will more than make up for the cost of these new laws, it is a source of contention among some groups that cannot justify this amount of spending during stressed economic times and an already unmanageable national deficit.
Business Fees
The new health insurance regulations will require everyone to have health insurance or else they will have to pay a fee to the government as a penalty. The government will subsidize the premiums of lower-income people to make insurance affordable, but businesses who do not offer their employees health plans will be charged for not doing so.
The fee will amount to $2,000 per year, per employee if the company employs more than 50 people. Two part-time employees will count as one whole employee for these purposes.
